Author
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Topic: Downsizing means that work is bad for your health
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N.Beltov
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4140
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posted 11 November 2004 03:02 PM
What else is new, eh? In Tuesday's paper, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix had an article noting that: quote: The downsizing that swept the country's workplaces during the 1980's and 1990's backfired, with so much work piled on employees that billions of dollars have been unnecessarily added to Canada's annual health-care costs, says a landmark study. The federally funded study...is the first to link the mounting workloads of Canadians and soaring health-care costs. It concludes stress and illness caused by work overload is adding an extra $6 billion a year in health-care costs while the strain of elder care adds another $5 billion a year. But Linda Duxbury, one of the report's co-authors, insists those extra costs are the "tip of the iceberg" because the study only examined the impact on family doctors, emergency rooms and in-hospital stays.
So capitalism is bad for your health. What a suprise. I won't be getting rid of my copy of Das Capital just yet. But this report also gives a whole new twist to the right-wing attack on health-care funding, doesn't it? Here's some more.... quote: "It's time we stopped pretending that we're going to fix health care by throwing more money at system fixes and start looking at what makes people sick. And what makes people sick is workload and the strain of elder care," said Duxbury. "...policy makers should recognize we have a finite resource in people and start crying for something to be done about the work environment."
I'm definitely keeping that copy of Capital . Ain't capitalism grand? Here is the link to the report: Working Conditions as a Determinant of Health
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003
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BLAKE 3:16
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2978
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posted 11 November 2004 03:54 PM
It's pretty interesting, isn't it? The popular version I read about this report was that poor working conditions ending up costing capitalists and the state toons of moolah. I don't know if yu ever saw them, but there was an "Adorno Was Right" Tshirt sround a few years ago. I used to apporach people wering it and ask "Was he?" Got odd looks. MARX WAS RIGHT -- not a bout everything but about a lot of the basics, especially Capital. Edited to add: I was talking to some janitors in a school last night. They are supposedly on Work-To-Rule. I asked them if they were doing it, and they said they couldn't get their work done with any breaks, including the the legal specified ones. Three guys doing the job of six. Keerazy, and not in the good way. [ 11 November 2004: Message edited by: BLAKE 3:16 ]
From: Babylon, Ontario | Registered: Aug 2002
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N.Beltov
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4140
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posted 26 November 2004 09:45 PM
The change from (some version of) socialism to gangster capitalism in the former Socialist Countries has some notable results. Here's one: quote: In eastern and central European countries where poorly regulated capitalism replaced communism almost overnight, stress and mental illness took a serious toll in men. Their life expectancy decreased by as much as 13 years while the life expectancy of women did not change. Similarly, male suicide rates soared during the "Great Depression" of the 1930's, when vast numbers of American men were unemployed.
The "scare quotes" around "Great Depression" are mine...the same term was used to describe the previous capitalist economic collapse in the 1890's so the term was used to describe only the most recent atrocities....Anyway, this is a sidebar. My point is that the source of this quote is that radical "left-wing" rag.......wait for it......The Mayo Clinic Newsletter. An obvious left-wing front. NOT! Capitalism is bad for your health, men. It's fucking time we started naming the system that sucks. naming the system that sucks o yes naming the system that sucks the system the system the system that sucks naming the system that sucks... Here is the link for the doubting Thomases... Male depression: Seldom recognized, often lethal .
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003
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