Wealth versus welfare by Claudia Sonea

According to a Romanian saying “the country is on fire and the old lady is brushing her hair” and is just what some researchers are doing. They have yet to discover a cure for cancer, to end world hunger, to create valid plans of beating the recession. However, none of the previously mentioned is on the researchers’ mind, as they are a lot more preoccupied with important things, like fantasising about the possibility of being at risk of losing your life due to the recession. You don’t need a special diploma to notice that stress is damaging people’s health, especially in developed countries where the! urge is to make as much money as possible, having a high profile job, even at the cost of working all day. Therefore, imagine the effect the economical downturn has on people and how much stress it causes. Yet, studies show that the mortality rate during the recession usually drops and the explanation that Stephen Bezruchka of The University of Washington School of Public Health gives seems plausible enough. If people are short on money, they will drink, smoke and eat less. Moreover, he points what was obvious enough, that money cannot bring happiness- a rich country doesn’t mean it has a better welfare. Bezruchka pleads for social distribution of wealth which is actually a utopia and doesn’t seem to be an idea a researcher would postulate. Surprisingly enough there are other studies on the same issue of death rate during recession and the justification is that the data could bring changes in the countries’ policies like making acti! ve labour-market programs. In Scandinavian countries like Finl! and the rates of suicides dropped as a consequence of the good welfare programs. In fact, these studies bring nothing new into our attention. The lawmakers were already aware that better welfare programs lead to a decline of the mortality rate and that happy people work better, don’t think about ending their lives, and they have a better attitude when it comes to failures and hardships. This is not, however, something that could actually be of any interest to the governments of developed countries like UK. With all the worries about the resources and their exaggerated consumption, as well as the danger of overpopulation, who needs to bother about improving people’s lives? At least, you can sleep better tonight, because you could lose your job tomorrow, you might end up living on the streets, but for sure you are not at risk of dying; that is, if you are not planning to jump off a tall building or in front of a train. Enjoy surfing and stay away fr! om any sharp object that might induce sadistic thoughts.

related story (sgx15272): http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090901/hl_time/08599191944700...

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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