The Politics of Life and Death
Rising life expectancy has long been seen as proof of capitalism’s success. But it was socialists who insisted on investment in health and well-being.
For the materialist grounded in real human experience, few indicators are more telling than the statistics of life and death. They serve as the ultimate reality check on every other measure of well-being we might place confidence in — from income inequality to self-reported happiness — because the length of life lays bare the generic condition of human welfare. […]
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