Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth
This documentary argues that wealth equals health. The higher the socioeconomic status the longer the life expectancy. This hour long film state that it is not the lack of universal healthcare that is making people sick, but the stress of living in unsafe neighborhoods, lack of nutritious meals, and “low control - high demand jobs” that many people struggle with on a daily basis.
All data and facts mentioned in the Unnatural Causes: In Sickness and in Wealth, did not particularly surprise me but it did make me pause and make that connection between health and wealth that I may not have even thought of until I started teaching. The idea that people living in unsafe neighborhoods had lower life expectancy seems logically and hard to dispute (“There’re all sorts of ways we’ve devised for depriving people of a sense of control over their lives. Living in a community where it’s not safe to go out. “). As did the argument of lack of nutritious food leads to health conditions and lower life expectancy. Those are all things that I have heard before and can’t really dispute.
The one point that also made logical sense, but I just haven’t heard data on it prior, was the effects of stress and life expectancy. Especially the stress of working a “low control-high demand” jobs. When our bodies our stressed for prolonged periods of time, due to work, has an impact on our health. When the documentary first began to argue this point, I thought, “isn’t everyone’s job stressful? Doesn’t the CEO get stressed? This argument could prove to be lacking”, but they quickly explained that while a CEO job IS stressful, “being a CEO is a high demand job, but Taylor usually has the power, resources and control to manage that pressure”. CEO’s can take a vacation to decompress, while people like Corey Anderson and his wife are not fiscally able to take a trip to release stress. So the stress continually compounds over the years and eventually leads to early death.
Hi Leah, the part about the connection between stress and different types of jobs was new to me too. I always thought people who work at low demand, low income jobs are more stressed. I had never thought that high demand, high paid jobs can be as stressful but those people have the power to control the pressure.
ReplyDeleteThis post, and Elif's comment, make me wonder: How do teachers fit in all of this? What kinds of power, resource, and access do teachers have? What do we need in order to be more healthy? How can our unions play a role in protecting what we have (E.g. summers to decompress)?
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking about the increased use of technology in our classrooms and the degree to which this raises/lowers the stress level. I can see arguments made for each.