Ketika isi bumi dikuasai oleh sekelompok kecil manusia saja... http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/93205
Gap between rich and poor bigger now than before Friday 23 July 2010 by John Millington [image: Printable page] Printable<http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/93205> [image: Email] Email<http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/tipafriend/93205> Britain's poorest are now twice as likely to die young as the rich - with inequality worse than during the Great Depression, medical experts have revealed. Researchers at Sheffield and Bristol universities said the country's health gap is the worst since records began. They found that the poorest 10 per cent were twice as likely to die before 65 as the richest 10 per cent - "the highest relative inequality recorded since at least 1921," they said. "The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high was in the lead-up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s." They studied death rates only as far as 2007 - and, faced with the cuts onslaught from the Con-Dem government, the situation is set to get even worse for Britain's workers and unemployed. "The economic crash of 2008 might precede even greater inequalities in mortality between areas in Britain," the researchers said. "Recent government interventions have aimed to reduce these inequalities but, the evidence suggests, to little effect." Anti-poverty charity War On Want spokesman Paul Collins pointed out that a combination of increased taxes on the banks and clamping down on big business tax dodgers could save the government billions. "These shocking health figures signal a warning that public spending cuts will hit the poor hardest," he said. "Yet government action could save an estimated £100 billion a year lost through tax dodges - enough to double funding for the health service. A tax on banks' currency transactions in Britain would also raise an extra £3bn each year to fight poverty." The data for the study was compiled from the death rates in England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics and for Scotland from the General Register Office for Scotland. Scotland has fared even worse during the downturn, with latest figures for Calton showing increased concentrations of the vulnerable and elderly with hostel accommodation for the homeless second highest in the city. STUC leader Grahame Smith called the report a "shocking indictment of British economic and social policy over the past 30 years" and urged the government to raise income levels and invest in housing and public services. Highlighting the Black report from 1980, which exposed the full extent of health inequality in Britain, Mr Smith slammed the politicians for failing to deal with the situation. "Reducing health inequality should have been a priority then and should be now," he said. "Instead we have had policy based on an economic orthodoxy that has promoted policies that have redistributed income from wages to profits and have undermined those things that make our society more equal including strong trade unions, progressive taxation and effective welfare provision." Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths called for increased investment in public services and urged the trade union movement to "mobilise mass opposition" to the cuts agenda.
