Disease is on the rise in 'wealthy' America

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1990 Savings and Loan scandal? He makes John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber of the '30s, look like a boy scout.

Dillinger pulled a gun to get the loot, Neil uses his dad's pull for the same ends. Dillinger was gunned down on the streets by the FBI, Neil has yet to get a slap on the wrist! He'll get off scot-free, because that's the way it is in America; rich kids get to play monopoly with real money that belongs to other people. But don't worry, the taxpayers will make things right.

Let's turn to another chip off the old block-Jeb Bush. Jeb, who works for the Republican Party in Miami, went into partnership to purchase a Miami office building, using money borrowed by an associate from a Florida savings and loan called Boward Federal. When Boward Federal went under, the government bailout took care of Closing date:

Dec. 2, 1990 SoAN As people celebrate the New Year, the Grim Reaper has many reasons to smirk. Not only does the possibility of war loom ever closer in the Middle East. But misery, disease, and death have intensified here in our own country.

Diseases that seemed about to be eradicated—measles, syphilis, gonorea, and tuberculosis—now are on the increase. Cancer has reached epidemic proportions. And a second wave of the AIDS epidemic is spreading among women and small children. Oh, the Reaper has many reasons for glee.

After a decade of decline, death and sickness from asthma has risen sharply among children-especially among low-income Black children. Between 1979 and 1987, for example, hospitalizations of children for asthma increased nearly 5 percent a year.

Why, in this "wealthiest" of nations, are our children stalked by death? Has that Devil Saddam Hussein released some kind of germ-warfare device on our little Michael Schreiber ones? Or is the answer closer at hand, found in the daily cycle of malnourishment, pollution, stress, and inadequate medical care confronting many families?

Consider this: The cost of healthcare increases about 17 percent a year, more than three times the country's general inflation rate. At the same time, an estimated 32 million to 37 million Americans cannot afford health insurance.

Racism also plays a role in the the Reaper's grand design. One in every 11 Blacks did not receive healthcare because they could not afford it, compared to one in 20 whites. The effects are startling:

A study in the current issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology shows that thousands of Blacks die from diseases (such as appendicitis, asthma, gallbladder infection, and hernia) that could be cured by routine medical care. Between the years 1980 and 1986, almost 80 percent of the deaths from those treatable diseases were among Blacks! Bush (interviewed while perched on his indoor bicycle) expounds on the ideas of "home healthcare," "neighbor helping neighbor," and "old-fashioned charity."

Charity sounds nifty in this season of sidewalk Santas and pie-inthe-sky preachers, but I've got a more realistic idea for Mr. Bush. I suggest he give this country a New Year's present by withdrawing all the troops from the Middle East and dismantling the entire military apparatus. That would save billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

Our servicemen and servicewomen could then be used to save lives. The troops could be mobilized to help rebuild our ravaged inner cities, construct hospitals and clinics, and provide healthcare free of cost to the general population.

Some of those warships could be recommissioned as hospital ships for every city with a harbor. Other ships and planes could carry free food and medical care to other countries.

Just imagine that new kind of New Year-a time in which disease is indeed on the wane, poverty and starvation are unknown, and war has been abolished. We'll wipe that smirk right off the Old Reaper's face!

That wonderful New Year is what socialists wish to hasten. Join us!

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