Socialism is Healthy: US Barracuda Capitalism is Literally Killing us

[CousinIT]

https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/socialism-barracuda-capitalism.html

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US has fallen off a cliff on global health statistics, plummeting an unprecedented 21 places in the world index. Moreover, the US is expected to fall even further behind over the next 20 years. Mellan Solly at The Smithsonian Magazine analyzed the numbers in a just-published Lancet article

While most countries are projected to experience a stark increase in lifespan, as much as 4 years, over the next two decades, the US will improve only slightly, plunging into a profound stagnation healthwise.

The US has switched places in the world rankings with China. You have to look closely at the Lancet Map to tell, but the US is very light blue like Brazil in 2040, and all of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, China, and some of the Middle East (Saudi Arabia up to the Levant) will have healthier and longer-lived populations than the US in 2040. In Spain and Japan people will have a life expectancy of 85. That of the US will be several years shorter.

So the obvious question is what is causing this backwardness in US health prospects.

One big cause of going to an early grave is smoking tobacco. The US still lets tobacco companies spray extra nicotine on tobacco leaves so as to make them extra addicting. Since smoking will kill you, the people who try to hook youngsters on smoking are going to the very deepest and most painful level of hell. About 15.5 percent of Americans still smoke, about 38 million people, and all of them are at risk for heart and lung disease, hypertension, and lung cancer.

Tobacco is being promoted in the United States today because we don’t just have a capitalist system but have Barracuda Capitalism. Former speaker of the House John Boehner used actually to give out cash from Big Tobacco on the floor of the House of Representatives, and this was perfectly legal! The legal system has decided that as long as the cigarette sellers put those little warnings on the packet, you can’t sue them for killing people. The tobacco billionaires, none of whom smoke, are being coddled and allowed to create a public health crisis, just because it is lucrative to a small circle of executives.

I can’t go into all the other ways consumer capitalism is shortening our lives, but believe me, it is. Air pollution, mercury pollution from burning coal, radioactive waste, killing off insects with pesticides, and heat-trapping gases threatening our future– all of these have been unleashed by Trump.

[brooklynite]

1. This says nothing about why Socialism would be better...

Since there are plenty of examples of where regulated capitalism works well, no point shifting to an unproven economic model.

[ck4829]

2. "Works well", what's that mean?

Works well for billionaires? Works well for certain people? I go hungry sometimes and I had to drop out of school, but that doesn't matter because the Dow is 25,000, yo! IT'S 25 THOUSAND!!!1! Is that what we mean by "works well"?

[brooklynite]

3. Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Germany

[ck4829]

4. Huh, what? Is this a list of any country that does well?

And the US is doing well too... We're doing such a great job of ignoring all the people who are cutting back and working more so billionaires can become multi-billionaires.

[brooklynite]

5. My point is that not every capitalist country engages in the "barracuda capitalism" you detest...

If you want to bring a Socialist revolution about however, knock yourself out. It'll take more than some blog posts...