Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1148/33054
From The Socialist newspaper, September 22, 2021
Life expectancy is decreasing, and at a higher rate for the poorest (Click to enlarge)
Nancy Taaffe, Socialist Party of Waltham Forest
I often think when I hear that a member of the royal family has passed away at the ripe old age of 101 – “didn’t they have a good run, they mustn’t be complaining!”
And yet, a report from Public Health England shows that the life expectancy of the vast mass of the population in 2020 has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade. For men, that meant 78.7 years and for women, 82.7 years. Men lost about 1.3 years of life and women 0.9 of a year. You might say, “Of course these numbers show a decline in life expectancy because we just went through a global coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people died prematurely.”
But what is telling is the growing gulf that exists between those who live the longest and those who live the shortest, depending on social deprivation. From 2011 to 2021, wealthy men live on average 10.3 years longer than the poorest men, and wealthy women 8.3 years longer.
What the statistics show is that if you were poor before the pandemic and prone to illnesses due to your poverty, then, like the effects of the virus on other aspects of society, the pandemic has heightened your propensity to to suffer.
I was not shocked by the results of this report; poor and sick people got sicker and sicker during the pandemic, and really sick people died before their time.
Longevity for those in the upper classes shows what is possible for all of us, with the right resources. The decline in the life expectancy of the working class and the poor shows that capitalism is sick. In the interest of societal and individual health, we must kill it as soon as possible!
Financial appeal
The coronavirus crisis has exposed the class character of society in many ways. This clearly shows to many that it is the working class that makes society run, not the CEOs of big companies.
The results of austerity have been shown graphically as utilities struggle to cope with the crisis.
- The material of the Socialist Party is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report workers fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels etc.
- We must be prepared for the stormy events to come and the need to arm the labor movements with a socialist program – a program that puts the health and needs of mankind before the profits of the few.
Inevitably, during the crisis, we were not able to sell the socialist and raise funds as we normally would.
We therefore urge all our viewers to donate to our Fight Fund.
In The Socialist for September 22, 2021:
What we think
Labor policy will not come from Labor
New
The working class under attack
NHS workers reject insult at 3%
Energy market chaos calls for nationalization
Conservatives cut Universal Credit: we need a union response
Interview: The bakers’ union will vote on union disaffiliation
Tax evasion could exceed £ 20 billion a year
Falling life expectancy – a condemnation of capitalism
Characteristic
Socialists and the four-day week
To occupy
10 years since Occupy
Workplace News
Ending the education workload crisis
MOJ compensation agreement accepted – we require 10% and no strings attached
Workers at 13 colleges on strike for wages
RMT announces new strike dates in East Midlands Railway guard dispute
Stop the press: the sparks come out
Oaks Park attackers demand eleven more days
International
German parliamentary elections
Campaigns
Unemployment, low wages, tuition scam, climate change … join the fight for socialism
Yorkshire’s youth struggle for jobs relaunched
West Sussex ‘Disability Tax’ – our protest is not going to go away
Fighting evictions in Cornwall
Leeds taxi drivers and disabled passengers unite to fight station changes
Socialist students: young people lit up when they saw us on campus
York: protest against non-binary and trans rights
Readers’ reviews
TV Review – Help: Heartbreaking Portrait of Covid Nursing Home Crisis
Death in the mines of Gleision: ten years later, still fighting for justice
Corbyn had a social protection plan
Who pays for the climate crisis?
Famine in Madagascar
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