[quote=ocrenter][quote=moneymaker]Health care is more readily available to the “more statused” however I seem to recall quit a few well to do dying lately at relatively young ages, David Copley, Steve Jobs, pick anyone in Hollywood that has died young lately. So in my opinion being statused may actually make one more unhealthy due to obesity/drug use(yes even the legal kind) and bad habits such as drinking and smoking. Of course I could be wrong as I recall seeing a lot of obese people last time I was at Walmart.[/quote]
Status and health are related, but access the health care plays a minor role.
Just as scaredy’s kid learned in school with apes, it is ultimately access to resources.
The higher status apes have access to plenty of food and the best shelter. This improves their health. For us, it is the access to healthy food that set the upper class apart from the lower class. For the higher class, you have the jimbos and the sprouts and the trader joes where whole wheat bread and brown rice and low salt items and fresh lean meat are the rule. For the lower class you have 99cent stores with white bread and high salt processed meat items and high fat snacks that are filling, cheap, and more addictive.
The lower class usually do not have leasure time to exercise as many have 2 jobs or multiple part time job, while the upper class do have more ability to manage their own time and find time to exercise. To the working poor, exercise seems foolish after 16 hours of cleaning toilets and mopping the floor. Replenishing the caloric supply, actually over replenishing with a meal at over 2000 calories all at less than $5 seem like the logical thing to do.
The dietary differences and approach to exercise ultimately is the difference between the various status groups.
As for access to health care, please remember Steve Jobs managed to survive for 3 years AFTER the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, that itself is a feat related to access to health care. Your average Jose would be lucky to survive 3 months from the diagnosis if he was even diagnosed at all.[/quote]
Excellent post, ocrenter. However, I think these subjects are a little “murkier” than your explanation so I’d like to add a few points to it.
Jobs had a slower growing pancreatic cancer than the typical patient (who lasts 0-10 months after diagnosis). He was first diagnosed in 2004 and died in 2011.
He lived 2+ additional years after his cancer metastasized and enveloped his liver because he obtained a liver transplant in 2009.
He did not “move to the top of any transplant lists” by making donations to hospitals or the donor registry (at least not while he was waiting for an available liver). He almost died waiting for a match and never would have gotten a liver in CA, due to the sheer amount of very sick patients on the waiting list for one.
National transplant rules make the organs available to the sickest patients who match the available organs. These patients must reside 4 or less hrs from the transplant center and be able to come to follow-up appts nearby for at least four months AFTER the transplant. Residing in Palo Alto, CA and owning a private jet, Jobs was able to travel to several US transplant centers to get a physical workup and get on each list. When there was a match in TN, he was immediately on his plane to Memphis and had his people secure him a property to stay there after he was released from the hospital:
Some would argue that Jobs got a liver yet had cancer which was terminal and that was a “waste of an organ.” His transplant “bought” him 27.5 months (with some of it a good quality of life) which he used to wrap up his affairs and introduce new products.
Everything he did to “buy time” was perfectly legal but could only be done by someone with vast resources.
Of course, pancreatic cancer of any kind is extremely deadly and always wins in the end. It doesn’t matter whether one has $6 or $6B in assets. A pancreatic cancer patient will eventually die, usually sooner than later. No amount of money can fix this.
Pancreatic cancer is primarily caused from damage to DNA (mutuations). It is inherited.
Jobs was a strict vegan most of his life and was never anywhere close to being “obese.” Nor did he smoke. Contrary to what MM posted earlier, not EVERYONE who gets a deadly cancer (“celebrities” incl) “did it to themselves.” Most are simply unlucky.
***********************************
Re: shopping habits of “poor people,” I took a neighbor whose car was broken down to a large 99 cent store in National City this week. I had not been there since it was a “Food Basket” (decades ago). It was very LARGE inside and had a LOT of good-quality produce for .99 (incl large Boston bibb or butter lettuce that would have cost ~$5 at Vons). It also had fresh med eggs and fresh 1/2 gal milk for .99. There was plenty of whole grain cereals and bread and it had brown rice, also. Most of the clientele were senior citizens and very few were anywhere close to being “obese.” It is located on the bus line so some patrons had their own rolling grocery carts which they could take on the bus (and some probably walked home). And I don’t see all these people going home and consuming 2500 calories in one sitting.
I was impressed with the variety of goods and quality of the available fresh items there. I saw nothing wrong with anything there and even bought a dozen eggs (which I’ve already used) and, of course, no one knew the difference between .99 dozen eggs and more expensive eggs.
I think people from all walks of life are just trying to get by …. or spend less on food so they can provide gifts for grandchildren at b-days and x-mas or make some repairs to their home. Even if one can afford it, why pay MORE if the same or similar item is cheaper in a store that is easy to get to?
I don’t think we can “pigeonhole” all people who shop in certain establishments (ie 99 cent store, Walmart) as being “poor, ignorant or in bad health.” In many smaller towns in those dreaded “flyover states,” Walmart “supercenter” (with food) is often the only place residents from a 30+ mile radius have to shop for food! This doesn’t make them all “ignorant,” in “poor health” or “obese.”
If anything, “poor people” walk more and often have to run (to catch a bus or trolley which is early) than people who back their bimmers out of their garages to go to the corner store. And remember that “rural people” (even if “poor”) don’t have a fast food joint and/or Starbucks on every corner to choose from like city-dwellers do.
