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Most of the World Still Does Without



 
 
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Old December 25th, 2003, 12:46 PM
Earl Evleth
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Default Most of the World Still Does Without

The article itself has a nice chart showing the problem areas

This is an international study, the actual article has a chart.

To compare with France

Unable to afford food at sometimes during the year

USA = 15%,
France = 8%

Unable to afford medical care at somte time
during the years

USA = 26%
France = 5%

Another charge shows the change since 1974.
The medical crisis in the US shows up
with an huge increase in the affordability
from 15 = 26%. Most countries are
having an increasingly difficult problem
in this area, Britain was up from 1 to 11%
(the economy has been Thatcherized). 3rd
world countries average near the 50% level
in this regard.

About half the people in Brazil, India
and Mexico have a food access problem


http://people-press.org/commentary/d...?AnalysisID=75


*******


Most of the World Still Does Without
Even in U.S., 15% Go without Food, 26% without Health Care

Released: November 25, 2003

The United States may pride itself as the land of plenty. But the portion of
Americans who occasionally go hungry for lack of money to pay for food has
not decreased in three decades. And America may have the best trained
doctors and most advanced hospitals in the world. But the portion of
Americans who periodically can't afford medical care each year has actually
increased since the mid 1970s. By comparison, Canadians, Europeans and
Japanese are far less likely to go hungry. But they, too, face a growing
challenge in finding the means to pay for a doctor. Meanwhile, widespread
basic deprivation--the lack of resources to pay for food and medical
care--remains a daily challenge in most of the rest of the world, especially
among the poor, according to 38,000 interviews in 44 countries by the Pew
Global Attitudes Project.

Hunger Widespread

As most Americans gather for Thanksgiving November 27--traditionally a time
for festive overeating and self-indulgence--about one-in-seven of their
fellow citizens say they occasionally can't afford to put food on their
tables. And the problem is not getting any better.

As many as 15% of Americans said there have been times in the last year when
they did not have enough money to buy food for their families. In contrast,
only one-in-eleven Western Europeans (9%) and one-in-25 (4%) Japanese said
they periodically go hungry. These proportions have not changed
significantly between 1974-5 and 2002, when compared with data collected by
Gallup International. Only in Japan, notwithstanding a decade-long economic
stagnation, has the proportion of people reporting they occasionally can't
pay for food declined significantly, by 10 percentage points since 1974-5.

In other, poorer parts of the world, putting food on the table is much
tougher. Majorities in seven of ten African countries surveyed--including
59% of South Africans and 56% of Nigerians--said they went without food at
some point because of the lack of money. And hunger is not simply a function
of absolute poverty. Half of Russians (50%) and Ukrainians (55%) also
complained they occasionally could not pay to feed their families. Moreover,
it has become more difficult to regularly put food on the family table in
parts of Latin America. In 2002, nearly half (45%) of Brazilians reported
that they skipped meals because of a lack of cash. In 1974-5, only 26% of
Brazilians occasionally went hungry.

The good news: for people fortunate enough to live in poor regions that have
prospered in the last generation, hunger, while still disturbingly
widespread, has declined. Two-in-three (66%) Indians said they periodically
went without food in 1974-5. By last year, 44% claimed such deprivation.

While an overwhelming number of people in the United States, Canada and
Europe said they have enough to eat, two-in-five low-income Americans at
times go hungry, the highest such proportion in the industrial world. Only
one-in-four low-income Canadians and Britons are so deprived. The young in
the United States are also twice as likely as the old to be unable to pay
for a meal‹21% of those aged 18-29 complained that they occasionally can¹t
buy food, compared with only 9% of those age 65 or older. U.S. women (19%)
also were more likely than men (11%) to not be able to afford the occasional
meal.

In most of the rest of the world, overwhelming portions of the poor
occasionally went hungry: 71% of low income people in Brazil, 66% of
low-income people in Russia, 65% of low income people in India. Notably,
however, a third (36%) of people who have a middle-class income by Brazilian
standards also reported not having enough money for food at times, and half
(52%) of middle- class Russians and a quarter (25%) of middle-class Indians
faced similar deprivation. Brazilian and Mexican women, like their sisters
in the United States, are much more likely than men in their societies to
have faced challenges feeding their families. But elsewhere in the
developing world, women were not much more likely than men to complain about
not being able to put food on the table regularly.


Access to Medical Care Worsening

Access to affordable medical care is often an even tougher challenge than
putting food on the table in much of the world, rich and poor. One-in-four
(26%) Americans said that there had been times in the last year that they
did not have enough money to pay for medical and health care that their
family needed. This was twice the percentage of Canadians (13%) and Italians
(12%) and five times the percentage of French (5%) who had such complaints.

Moreover, the affordability of medical care is a growing problem in much of
the industrial world. In 1974-5, 15% of Americans said they periodically
couldn't afford to see a doctor. In 2002, the percentage had grown to 26%.
There was a similar increase in such complaints in Canada-(from 4% in 1974-5
to 13% in 2002) in Britain (from 1% to 11%) and in Italy from 9% to 12%.
Access to affordable health care also became a more widespread problem in
Brazil (36% to 51%) and Mexico (39% to 45%).

In a sign that government health insurance for older Americans has improved
their access to care, only one-in-five (20%) Americans age 65 and older
reported they had to go without medical care at some time over the past year
because of a lack of funds. Without a comparably large government program
for the young, one-in-three (33%) people age 18-29 had to forego health care
because they could not afford it.

Overall, there was a stark difference in people's experience with the
American market-oriented health care system and the state-funded medical
care provided in Canada and Western Europe. As many as 55% of low-income
Americans occasionally could not afford to pay for care, only 25% of
low-income Canadians, 17% of low-income Germans and 8% of low-income
Japanese faced that problem. The United States lacks a universal health care
system; Canada, Germany and Japan each have such a safety net.

Women are relatively disadvantaged by the U.S. medical care system. Nearly
one-in-three (31%) American women said they had occasional trouble paying
for health care, but only one-in-five (22%) American men had the same
complaint. There was no such gender gap in Canada or Western Europe.

As might be expected, the poor almost everywhere have trouble paying for
medical ca nearly two-in-three (64%) Nigerians said they had at times
lacked the funds to pay for the care their families needed, as did more than
half of Indonesians (56%) and three-in-five (61%) Mexicans. Half of Russians
(54%) and Ukrainians (56%) had similar complaints.

These findings are drawn from the Pew Global Attitudes Project¹s surveys of
38,000 people in 44 nations, conducted during the summer/fall 2002 under the
direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion
surveys. The project has issued two major reports, "What the World Thinks
in 2002" * based upon 38,000 interviews in 44 nations * and "Views of a
Changing World, June 2003² * based on 16,000 interviews in 20 nations and
the Palestinian Authority. Surveys were conducted by local organizations
under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates. The Gallup
trends from 1974-5 are drawn from the ³Human Needs and Satisfactions² survey
published by Kettering and Gallup International in 1977. Full details about
the surveys, and the project more generally, are available at
www.people-press.org

  #2  
Old December 26th, 2003, 09:07 PM
Miguel Cruz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Most of the World Still Does Without

Earl Evleth wrote:
http://people-press.org/commentary/d...?AnalysisID=75

Most of the World Still Does Without
Even in U.S., 15% Go without Food, 26% without Health Care

Released: November 25, 2003

. . .

While an overwhelming number of people in the United States, Canada and
Europe said they have enough to eat, two-in-five low-income Americans at
times go hungry, the highest such proportion in the industrial world. Only
one-in-four low-income Canadians and Britons are so deprived. The young in
the United States are also twice as likely as the old to be unable to pay
for a meal‹21% of those aged 18-29 complained that they occasionally can¹t
buy food, compared with only 9% of those age 65 or older. U.S. women (19%)
also were more likely than men (11%) to not be able to afford the
occasional meal.

In most of the rest of the world, overwhelming portions of the poor
occasionally went hungry: 71% of low income people in Brazil, 66% of
low-income people in Russia, 65% of low income people in India. Notably,
however, a third (36%) of people who have a middle-class income by
Brazilian standards also reported not having enough money for food at
times, and half (52%) of middle- class Russians and a quarter (25%) of
middle-class Indians faced similar deprivation. Brazilian and Mexican
women, like their sisters in the United States, are much more likely than
men in their societies to have faced challenges feeding their families.
But elsewhere in the developing world, women were not much more likely
than men to complain about not being able to put food on the table
regularly.


A big problem I have with the way this article is written is that it's
difficult to figure out how many "low-income" people there are. Are there
100000 in Britain and 12 in the USA?

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/
 




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