"In Sickness and Wealth"

In your opinion, what is more important: health or wealth?

Would your answer change if I told you that wealth directly supports good health, and has been linked to longer rates of life expectancy? Studies show that the more affluent you are, the better your health is. But why is that? 

Good old Capitalism. 

Living in a capitalist society means that inequality is just an inevitable part of everyday life. Capitalism creates injustice in the form of unequal health outcomes because the healthcare industry is a thriving for-profit business. There are people right now literally choosing between working and having healthcare insurance because if your income is too high, you can lose your medical coverage. Capitalism also makes it so that healthy organic foods, fruits, and vegetables are more expensive, and less healthy foods feed more people for less money. In this country, wealth equals health, there’s no way around it. 

The correlation between chronic illnesses, race, and social class are explored in the Unnatural Causes episode, “In Sickness and Wealth.” One primary focus of the episode is the everyday stressors that often plague middle and working-class individuals, as well as the detrimental impact that these stressors have on one’s health. Stressors such as job insecurity, working multiple jobs, high neighborhood crime rates, and racial discrimination have been proven to increase the risk of illness. And despite the fact that they are more susceptible to illnesses in comparison to their wealthy counterparts, working and middle-class Americans generally have less access to healthcare services. Though not exactly surprising, it’s very disheartening to think that in one of the richest, most developed countries in the world, 47 million (or more) Americans live without health insurance...

It’s important to also keep in mind that poor health due to outside stressors is not exclusive to individuals belonging to lower social classes. Examining the relationship between health and race reveals that on average, African Americans live shorter lives than White Americans, no matter the social class. This made me think of my family in Cape Verde. Although my family survives on less than a dollar a day, my grandmother lived to be 106. So the racial gap in life expectancy is not simply a result of “bad” genetics or even poverty. Actually, one of the driving factors behind shorter life expectancy in African Americans is racial discrimination, which essentially deteriorates health by triggering the stress response. In countries with less discrimination, black people have a higher life expectancy rate, which makes sense. It’s stressful just hearing about racism, now imagine living through it every single day. That is enough to take a toll on anyone’s health.

 

So what does this all mean for us as future English teachers? As we navigate through this pandemic, I believe we need to be especially cognizant of Maslow's Hierarchy and apply it in our classrooms. Your student could very well be one of the 47 million Americans living without health insurance. Health is an important part of our student's safety needs, and if our students aren't healthy, they can not meet their full potential. We need to find ways to support them and provide them with resources. Also, knowing what we know now about the ways in which racial discrimination affects health, if it wasn't your top priority before, fostering a safe and welcoming environment in the classroom should be your number one goal as an educator. It's important that we ensure an inclusive and united classroom for all of our students!