Human RightsNorth America

Life Expectancy Shrinks for Poor People in US

According to a study conducted for the professional journal Health Affairs, life expectancy is falling for significant sections of the working class in the United States, and in some cases has reverted to levels not seen in half a century.

The figures reported are stark. The gap in life expectancy between the most socially privileged and the most socially disadvantaged groups in American society is more than 10 years for women and more than 14 years for men. The authors write, “These gaps have widened over time and have led to at least two ‘Americas’… .”

Researchers suggested that rising obesity, higher rates of smoking among women, abuse of prescription drugs, and a decline in health insurance coverage-43 percent of the least-educated had no health insurance in 2006-may all have been contributing factors.

Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity in London, told the New York Times that the decline in life expectancy for poor white women over the five-year period from 2003 to 2008 brought to mind the seven years of falling life expectancy for Russian men after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This comment is all the more striking given that the five years from 2003 to 2008 largely preceded the Wall Street crash of September 2008 and the ensuing plunge of the US and world economy into the deepest slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. There is no doubt that all the social evils discussed in the Health Affairs report have worsened over the past four years.

The decline in life expectancy for some sections of the working class is a product of a broader social crisis. The Health Affairs report is an ominous warning of the cumulative impact of social inequality, poverty, unemployment, low wages and general deterioration of social services in America.

Despite being expressed in the technical jargon of the social sciences, with its conclusions very cautiously drawn, the study documents the failure of American capitalism to meet the most basic test of a society: the preservation and extension of human life.

The report provides an insight into the shocking conditions of poverty that are concealed by the corporate-controlled media and the political establishment. The decline in life expectancy for substantial sections of the population is the result not simply of impersonal economic forces. It is the outcome of decades of social and political reaction, presided over by Democratic as well as Republican administrations.

The article notes the dramatic decline of the United States in international rankings of life expectancy, especially for women, from 14th place in 1985 to 41st place in 2010, according to the United Nations. “Among developed countries, American women sank from the middle of the pack in 1970 to last place in 2010, according to the Human Mortality Database,” the Times noted.

While social conditions for the working masses deteriorate, America still remains number one in the world in the categories that really matter to the ruling elite: the number of billionaires, the profits amassed by the super-rich, and the number of soldiers, policemen, bombs, missiles, and prison cells available to protect the financial parasites from the working people whose labor is the actual source of all wealth.

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