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"For example [among developed nations], we have the highest infant-mortality rate, the highest child-poverty rate, the highest teen-pregnancy rate, the highest child-abuse death rate and so on. There are no indicators in which we excel, except in spending money on health care, for we spend half of the world's health-care bill."
This wasn't always so. What has caused the change? "Fifty years ago," Bezruchka said, "it was the poorest families that saw the biggest gains in income. Now, as you all know, it is only the rich and super rich that are seeing gains in income."
Bezruchka's studies show that residents of nations with a strong middle class and small income disparities, such as Sweden or Japan, have the best overall health. Countries like Nigeria and the United States, with huge gaps in income, have the worst.
"An African-American male in Harlem lives less long than a man in Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries," he said. "A black man in Washington, D.C., lives less long than a man in Ghana."
In reconstructing Japan after World War II, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur changed the rules. He redistributed the wealth and the land in a way to make everyone more nearly equal (or at least less unequal).
He installed what was known as a 3D program (demilitarization, democratization and decentralization). As we all know, it worked marvelously. And it brought Japan to the world's No. 1 spot in health. The Japanese now live longer than anyone.
While Japan was improving, we in the United States were going the other way. We've become tremendously militaristic, our democracy is waning and our institutions are becoming more and more centralized. (Think Wal-Mart.)
So, what's the solution to our national health problems? Bezruchka suggests that the poor learn to flex their political muscle. Only when the politicians start serving the masses, rather than their rich contributors, will things change.
"If the poor organized, if the working class got together, it would be a piece of cake to change things," he said. "After all, the poor and the working class are the majority in this country."
I certainly agree with Bezruchka on this, except for one problem: the Republicans have convinced the working class to vote against their own best interests.
Candidates can hold 99 positions that benefit working-class people, but if they hint that they might favor some sort of gun control, like keeping assault weapons out of the hands of gangsters, many of the working class will vote against them.
Or, if those same candidates say they favor a woman's right to choose, many, many working-class people will vote against them on that one issue alone.
So the rich keep spewing out the poisonous lies that the liberals will take all our guns away -- they won't, they can't: the Constitution forbids it -- and that abortion is liberal-sponsored murder. Those two issues keep the working class in line, and, in the process, jeopardize the health of us all.
Bezruchka's Dec. 6 lecture prints out to 11 single-spaced pages. I just scraped the surface of it here and didn't begin to do it justice.
If you can spare the time, if you're really interested in learning how to help your country, I recommend you read it.
Published on Monday, December 22, 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle
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