http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/is-poverty-a-death-senten_b_960598.html
Please read Senator Bernie Sanders' speech on the Senate floor ----
He notes . . . .
Some facts
• At a time when we are seeing major medical breakthroughs in cancer and other terrible diseases for the people who can afford those treatments, the reality is that life expectancy for low-income women has declined over the past 20 years in 313 counties in our country. In other words, in some areas of America, women are now dying at a younger age than they used to.
• In America today, people in the highest income group level, the top 20 percent, live, on average, at least 6.5 years longer than those in the lowest income group. Let me repeat that. If you are poor in America you will live 6.5 years less than if you are wealthy or upper-middle class.
etc. etc.
[ The superficial comparison of Western societies and Indian (or Islamic) societies is a totally falsely constructed binary opposition and is usually presented by dyed-in-the-wool bullshitters. These habitual BS artists avoid talking about CLASS. I know the poverty Bernie Sanders is talking about. The poor people in the subcontinent do not have severe winter's hardship to endure in addition to malnutrition and lack of sanitation and medical care.
In the past couple of decades the agrarian poor people's conditions in Bangladesh have improved slightly due to certain Govt. programs, not just the actions of the NGOs. There is the lack of infrastructure in our countries the inconvenience of which is suffered by the rich and poor alike. The ugly traffic jam in the streets of Dhaka, for instance. In America the upper middle class can live in a safe distance from the poor, which is not so easily done in densely populated Bangladesh.
Just a few stray thoughts on a very big issue --- Farida Majid]
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