Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)
The Measure of Our
Happiness
H.
Patricia Hynes
April
3, 2019
Common
Dreams
For the past seven
years, the United Nations has issued a report titled the World Happiness
Report. While this report may sound somewhat lightweight, it actually
ranks countries by serious measures including income, freedom, trust in
government, social support, life expectancy and how happy citizens perceive
themselves to be. The highest-ranking countries are those, we learn, that
have “strong social welfare systems and an emphasis on equality.”
I was not
surprised to learn that in 2019 our country fell in rank from 18th to 19th in
the report. Despite our high employment, millions of working people hold
2 jobs to pay bills and are an illness away from bankruptcy. Moreover, we
have seen a steady increase in the number of hate groups, the majority being white
male supremacist groups, over the past 3 years coinciding with President
Trump’s campaign and presidency. In his recent manifesto, the
Australian-born murderer of 50 New Zealand Muslims at worship in mosques
attributed Trump as the “symbol of renewed white identity.”
While some may
protest that the United States is a more complex society with a higher rate of
immigrants, Canada, which has a higher percent of foreign-born residents than
the US, ranks higher in the recent UN report. So also do Britain and
Germany with comparable percentages of foreign-born residents as the US.
A recent study of
hundreds of federal government policies found that most policies adopted by our
government are those that favor the economic elite and business interests.
Let us consider
some other factors that might cause us to fall lower on the World Happiness
Index than other democratic countries, less wealthy than our own. A
recent study of hundreds of federal government policies found that most
policies adopted by our government are those that favor the economic elite and
business interests. Only when the general public’s interests coincide
with powerful business corporations do our interests get served. Consider also
that our life expectancy has dropped over the past year due to drug overdoses
and suicides among white men in the late 40s and 50s – a tragic sign of
something, maybe hopelessness or a sense of no future that plagues some in our
country.
Countries can also
be judged by the way they treat their children, so let’s consider our own.
While the US is among the wealthiest nations in the world, it has a
higher rate of child poverty than other wealthy countries. Why? Compared
to other wealthy countries, our government underinvests in its poor children
and their families and this leads to higher persistent child poverty and poor
child health, poor educational outcomes, and no exit out of poverty.
Budgets are moral
documents and they mirror the values and priorities of a country.
So let us look at
US values and priorities through the lens of President Trump’s proposed
discretionary budget for 2020.
As in past years,
the Department of Defense (DOD) is allocated an increase and the lion’s share
in the proposed budget (more than 60%), while every other department and agency
that contributes to Americans’ daily well being is cut:
- 31%
decrease for the Environmental Protection Agency: Think climate
change, lead in drinking water, clean air, clean water and hazardous
waste.
- 22%
decrease for Department of Transportation: According to the American
Society of Civil Engineers, the US infrastructure, including roads,
bridges, dams, and airports gets a D+ grade.
- 16.4%
decrease for Department of Housing and Urban Development, while ½ million
Americans are homeless and Section 8 waiting lists for affordable housing
range from 1 to 5 years.
- 12%
cut in Health and Human Services, despite the opioid addiction crisis.
- 12%
cut in Department of Education: US education quality is falling when
compared to most developed and even lesser developed countries in annual
international testing of high school students.
- Department
of Energy: 2/3rds cut in wind power research; 92% cut in research on
energy efficiency in buildings.
All I can
recommend for lifting the well-being of those harmed by the budget priorities
of this administration is this: Vote an alternative in 2020.
The military
budget assures the economic health of defense contractors and pours our tax
money into the Pentagon’s ongoing masculinist goal of maintaining military
superpower status (championed by both Democrats and Republicans), even after
two decades of failed wars. Yet it does not prioritize its soldiers and
veterans. Veterans commit suicide at twice the rate of non-military citizens,
and they have a higher rate of homelessness, particularly veterans of color and
women vets. A recent survey of military families portrays slum-like conditions
with mold, lead and rodents in military housing. Concurrently,
environmental studies expose extensive groundwater and drinking water contamination
at US bases, most notably from fire-fighting chemicals, which the Pentagon
considers too expensive to remedy.
All I can
recommend for lifting the well-being of those harmed by the budget priorities
of this administration is this: Vote an alternative in 2020. Scrutinize
candidates for their position on reducing the defense budget; raising the
minimum wage to a living wage; eliminating violence against women, people of
color and immigrants; providing universal health care; and putting more of our
tax money into affordable housing, quality education, repair of roads and
bridges, safe drinking water, clean up of hazardous wastes and the climate
crisis. Otherwise, states turn to casinos and sports betting (which can
give temporary highs but not lasting well-being) to fill the holes in our
social safety net.
Pat Hynes, a
retired Professor of Environmental Health from Boston University, directs the
Traprock Center for Peace and Justice. http://traprock.org]
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment