London Boroughs 06 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Guardian and Dr Alf are stating the obvious. If you are poor, overweight, eat rubbish, lead a sedentary and dull life, are unemployed and live in cramped surroundings, without hope of betterment, you will die much sooner than if you are wealthy, comfortable, live well, are healthy, well exercised and have much to look forward to.
This is borne out by the Civil Service survey which showed that Mandarins outlived their more stressed employees lower down the food chain by a significant margin.
In the 1980s, during the Thatcher years, the largest numbers of paupers funerals were in North East England, formerly the home of shipbuilding which had them moved to South Korea. Those funerals were mostly of men who were single,living alone and unemployed.
Ignorance about nutrition, the effects of smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and the need to keep one’s brain active compounds the problem and ensures that the better off whether they are in London Boroughs or anywhere else outlive their impoverished counterparts.
As if to make sure the food manufacturers and the supermarkets conspire to produce foods and drinks with differing salt and sugar contents.
Go to Waitrose and those salt and sugar contents are lowest, followed M&S, then Sainsbury’s, then Tesco’s then Morrisons‘ and then the rest.
The cheaper “shopping baskets” produced for the “Great Unwashed” are the ones designed to wreak the most havoc and are the ones with the most processed food, mechanically recovered meat, carcinogenic substances and gender bending substances.
This creates a vicious circle of sloth, debauchery, lack of exercise and lack of curiosity, causing the brain to shrink and for those afflicted to engage in activities which further damage health such as not cooking properly, smoking, bizarre lifestyles, not reading, not thinking and not engaging in activities which will enable them to improve their mental, emotional and physical well-being.
The reporters and owners of the Guardian do not fall into this trap because to a man and woman they are all products of a gilded and cosseted Oxbridge elite, like the politicians they like to write about. The Guardian laments the situation with much hand-wringing but offers no remedy for the downtrodden masses.
As a start, I would introduce variable taxes on foods and then consider additional measures for London:
1) More park and Rides, Salzburg style, more pedestrianized areas and the encouragement of more electric cars which could be rented outside London and then driven in and back again once one,s business was concluded.
2) Mandatory limits on sugar, salt and harmful chemicals in food, till rolls, plastics and packaging
3) A ban on fluoride in toothpaste, water and other products
4) Water filters on all taps retrofitted by the water companies
5) Planting more air cleaning trees wherever possible particularly around airports, housing estates, major junctions (space permitting)
6) Fica plants in all offices and public buildings to clean the air there plus ionisers in every office, supermarket and factory to remove diesel particulates, dust and illness making airborne particles
7) All breakfast cereals and bread to be fortified with the daily RDA of essential vitamins and minerals
8) More police constables and uniformed street wardens patrolling the City at night to make it safe for people to walk or catch buses and tubes
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The lower classes are all a expendable items of the rich, when looking at the culture of the working classes, the inbred values of the way many working class see the world, is not hard to see why one may not have empathy with this class, conversely, the so called middle class and upwards, have their equal share of obnoxious qualities that are a challenge to some people who have a semblance of consciousness, what is meant is the reinforcement of class divisions, by the so called educated, you may find a example of what I mean by checking out autonomous mind blog, the total conviction this site supports, is global warming is politically dishonest, I am unable myself to make a opinion on this issue as it has to many complexities for me to know, but what is a problem is this being a blog by the educated that has such definite opinions as to issues as such, what is worst is when look up brianH, the same address you will get a load of educated claptrap from some one well educated but nevertheless, suffers from inferiority that can not address the idea other than giving you a lecture on proper English, it is these morons that make dealing with the middle class a problem.
Don,
Thanks for sharing your views.
I am a baby-boomer & proud of it. When I was a child in the fifties, I can still remember powdered milk as a left-over from WWII. In my generation, social mobility was a reality. Many of my contemporaries started from very humble backgrounds but were incredibly successful with their achievements in life. Indeed starting from a lower class often hardened people and gave them an additional edge. Of course, there were always those who did not want to work or study, expecting instant achievement.
In the UK and most Western countries, social mobility has reached new lows since thee 2008 financial crisis. What ever happened to the American Dream?
Personally, I am currently in India and find that whilst the caste system was officially banned in the 1948 constitution, it is still very real in daily life; just by giving one’s full name, one is identifying one’s class.
I have enormous sympathy for the “millennials” (16-35 year-olds), for whom social mobility is denied.
Surely, it’s time for society to give the millennials a chance?
Dr Alf,
Touching on the caste system in India, it is exists in Britain now. Not long ago I saw an enlightening TV documentary on this subject which showed a man in tears. He had been interviewing another man for a job. When the interviewee discovered that the interviewer was of a lower caste he insulted him and walked out. The poor man was left remarking “I thought I’d left all that behind in India, but they’re bringing it here!”.
Thank you for the information about how one’s name indicates one’s caste – this explains a lot. It seems there is a long way to go before people are valued as individuals and not for their background.
Perhaps, in the end, globalization will put an end to prejudice in all nations.
Sorry, ‘it exists’.