this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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America Is Suddenly Getting Healthier. No One Knows Why. (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People cannot eat, poorly or otherwise, if they aren’t paid enough to buy food. People cannot afford to eat, so obesity rates are dropping.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3198075/

"Poverty rates and obesity were reviewed across 3,139 counties in the U.S. (2,6). In contrast to international trends, people in America who live in the most poverty-dense counties are those most prone to obesity (Fig. 1A). Counties with poverty rates of >35% have obesity rates 145% greater than wealthy counties."

Minimum wage is making gains in some areas, that’s true, but groceries are also rising.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/americans-wages-are-higher-than-they-have-ever-been-and-employment-is-near-its-all-time-high/

"Most importantly, inflation-adjusted wage growth has been strongest for the lowest-income workers, whose real wages are 16 percent higher than they were before the pandemic. Policymakers still must do more to address income inequality and to help struggling households: In 2023 alone, 47 million people were living in food-insecure households, and around 40 million people were living in poverty. But it is unequivocally the case that wages and employment are higher than ever before in U.S. history."

Same goes for drug deaths. People cannot afford drugs, due to excess profits for exectutives at the expense of employee wages.

Drugs are highly correlated with desperation and misery. The number of people in overdose territory who just don't buy drugs because they don't have enough money... it just doesn't work that way. Famously so.

I’d love for America to not get worse every year, but it’s impossible to turn a blind eye.

I'm sure you would, genuinely. And it's still very, very far from being a good place. What I am saying is that you have developed an impenetrable mental structure where any indication that some particular aspect getting better is something you're going to attack.

It is okay to evaluate a source based on whether it seems solid, rather than whether it agrees with your existing picture. If you are evaluating it only based on whether it matches the current picture, you can get yourself stuck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

An article from 2011 is hardly an indication of recent American health. There was a whole pandemic since then.

The article about wages and inflation does not take price gouging into account, or people having to work multiple jobs.

Perhaps the less drug deaths could be due to less opiods being prescribed, due to America losing it's poppy farms in Afghanistan.

Beside those points, the diagnosis isn't necessary, not without seeing your psychology degree.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The article about wages and inflation does not take price gouging into account

I knew this was going to come up, I don't know why I didn't address it. Yes it does take price gouging into account. 'Inflation-adjusted wage growth' includes price gouging in the 'inflation-adjusted' part. Food prices have gone up by about 25%, and wages at the lowest end of the scale have gone up by about 35%. That's probably invisible to you, because if you're on Lemmy, you're probably not at the lowest end of the scale, whereas the food prices going up is definitely visible to you.

Perhaps the less drug deaths could be due to less opiods being prescribed, due to America losing it’s poppy farms in Afghanistan.

Can I do this, too? Perhaps the less drug deaths could be due to the increased wages and social safety net, giving breathing room to people who were previously desperate, and sending fewer people into a strangling cycle of addiction and pain with only one predictable way out. I don't even have to cite a study! I can just say "perhaps."

Beside those points, the diagnosis isn’t necessary, not without seeing your psychology degree.

Up to you. I'm trying to help you, but it seems you don't want it. These things happen, good luck with your understandings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Well, I never asked for your help, and nor do I need it, however well intentioned it may be. Like you said about me, it's coming from a good place, so I can't fault you for that.

It seems to me that we both want better, we're just seeing it through different perspectives. We're both looking at a subject through a glass of water. The light on the subject will refract and reflect differently depending on how you view it, and from my viewpoint, the glass is half empty.