The 2013 report from UNICEF “Child well-being in rich countries” ranks the United States number 26 of 29 developed countries, just below Estonia, Slovakia and Greece. Ranking is based on material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviors and risks, and housing and environment.
The data in the report was collected in 2008 and does not reflect the continuing austerity policies being carried out by Western countries. UNICEF stated that the effects of these policies on economic hardship “do not bode well for the present or near future.”
Another study, on U.S. women’s health, in a recent Health Affairs article looked at data from 3,140 U.S. counties on increasing female mortality rates between 1992 and 2006, prior to the current economic crisis. Female mortality rates increased in 42.8 percent of counties over the 14-year period (male mortality rates increased in only 3.4 percent). As the primary caregivers for children, the decline in women’s health has a direct impact on the health and well-being of their children.
Each economic crisis under capitalism results in more wealth being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, as is evident in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Social services are cut back and needs of the majority of workers and their families go unmet as the biggest corporations invest hoarded funds in government securities that mostly finance the military-industrial complex and U.S. wars. Nearly $1 trillion annually goes into maintaining the U.S. military budget alone.
The recent budget “sequester” has proposed that the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program be cut by $185 million, the Department of Education program “Impact Aid” cut by $60 million; nearly 70,000 children will lose access to Head Start while 30,000 will lose subsidized daycare; and 300,000 will lose their benefits from the Women, Infants and Children program, among other cuts to much needed services.
Only developed capitalist countries were studied in the UNICEF report. In comparison, socialist Cuba has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas, with the U.S. having nearly double that of Cuba. Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution has put a priority on meeting human needs and as a result has seen a decrease in poverty over the past decade—from 42.8 percent in 1992 to 26.5 percent in 2011—and an increase in life expectancy, while poverty in the U.S. and Europe continues to rise.
Capitalism is an inhumane system that will always put profits over human life, where the most vulnerable—children—suffer the greatest.
