From Truth Out: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18045-were-all-being-poisoned-by-deregulated-capitalism
Thom Hartmann
Wednesday, 07 August 2013
There’s an undeclared war going on between the rich and the poor right here in the United States and the rich think they’ve found a way to win it.
They’ve locked themselves into gated communities, lily-white suburbs, and wealthy urban neighborhoods and they’ve priced the poor out.
Happy and blissful in their one percent paradise, the richest Americans think they can ignore how their policies have decimated the poor and the working-class.
Think they can live in a “me” society, and ignore the larger “we society.”
But they’re wrong and here’s why.
It’s pretty much common knowledge in the United States that poverty and health are inseparable. All the major indicators of physical health – diabetes, heart-disease, and even access to nutritious foods – are connected to socioeconomic status.
Just take a look at any map of obesity in the United States.
The poorest states like Mississippi and Arkansas are also the most obese. You can see why when you compare those maps with one of American food deserts, which are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as places where at least 500 people live more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store. Those same impoverished and overweight states are also home to the most barren regions for people who want fresh food instead of the stuff they sell at a 7-Eleven or McDonald’s.
And things aren’t getting better for the poorest Americans. Today, 32 years of Reaganomics have brought us record levels of inequality and poverty. While most developed nation in the worlds have poverty rates below 10 percent, the official poverty rate here in the United States hovers around 15 percent according to the most recent Census data, an all-time high.
This means that about 46 million people struggle to make ends meet in the richest country in the world.
Continue reading at: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18045-were-all-being-poisoned-by-deregulated-capitalism
