Raise the Hammer

Based on some experience in health care, I have to support moylek's argument in general.

Every time somebody states that being unable to afford healthy food causes health problems, obesity, etc., I cringe. It is seriously misunderstanding cause, effect and correlation.

Lack of income causes health problems in the same way that Clinton's enabling of low income earners to get mortgages caused the global financial meltdown. Both are technically correct, but in fact very minor contributors to the respective outcome.

If you doubt this, rth's university educated readership likely has a differential of between ten and infinity times the difference in income as a student and a gainfully employed adult. Sure, you may have had more rice and pasta in school, but perhaps more beer and wings too, so on the whole I'll bet your dietary health is about the same. For myself, there is no sigt difference in healthfulness of diet, despite some lean student years with no income.

Poverty and poor health are both consequences of the same underlying social determinants of health. The Spec enumerated these at the start of the series (sorry, can't find it online). Some of these factors include: -genetic predisposition -family cohesion and support -community support -substance abuse -personality factors -cultural environment -individual vs socialist oriented government programs -education -employment (not just the effect on income: employable people have healthier lifestyles)

The thing that makes it appear that poverty causes poor health (when it is in fact a strong correlation that is only somewhat causal) is that all these factors are not independent. They occur in clusters. So the relationship between each factor and poverty or health is weak, but when the causal factors cluster, you get an amplified effect, and together these factors are the root causes of both poverty and poor health.