Article Review:  “The American dream may help the poorest among us live longer. Here’s why”

Article Review:  “The American dream may help the poorest among us live longer. Here’s why”

“The American dream may help the poorest among us live longer. Here’s why” is an article published in Los Angeles Times on January 24^th, 2020, by Melissa Healy, which discusses the longevity gap between the poor and rich living in the United States. According to the article, people who live within counties with more economic opportunities to improve their lives are expected to live a longer life compared to those to those who stay in counties where it is nearly unbearable to advance. Those people who live in counties where projections for economic progress are limited, life is shorter too (Ransome, 2019). In the article, Melissa explains that American men who have reached the age of 40 with their household income in the top 25 percent can have an average life expectancy of 45 years. But men who are 40 with their household incomes in the bottom 25 percent are expected to live 36 more years. On the other hand, the longevity gap for American women is smaller compared to that one for men, but still substantial. A typical woman at the age of 40 with a high-household income is expected to reach the age of 87, which is five and a half years longer than those living with low-households income.

The article provides an analysis of the counties within the United States that relates deficiency of social mobility with a bigger longevity gap as well as higher social mobility with a bigger life expectancy gap. Social mobility is the ability to alter positions within a stratified social system (Collins, 2019). When individuals advance or lessen their economic status in a manner that affects their social class, then they experience what is called social mobility. An individual can either experience upward or downward, and this could be due to various reasons. For example, Oprah Winfrey is an excellent example of individuals who have experienced social mobility upward in the United States. Oprah grew up in poverty from a rural area called Mississippi before she became an influential media personality. The numer of people that rise from poverty to wealth, in relation to the overall population in the United States, is very small. Melissa, in her article, states that the differences in the ability of Americans to rise economically accounted for roughly 20 percent of the discrepancy in the life length, according to the study by JAMA Internal Medicine. The discoveries provide clear evidence that the strength of the communities we occupy can cause a variance in our longevity and health. In areas where there are no jobs, education is deprived and determination is lowered. As a result, residents who are supposed to be in the prime of life are more disposed to mental and physical illness and are less likely to leave unhealthy habits that will help them improve their conditions.

The implications are alerting in a country where the gap between the poor and rich is widening and the spreading of economic opportunity is unevenly among ethnic groups, across regions, and between rural and metropolitan communities (Seligson, 2019). From the year 2015, the Americans average lifespan started falling and continued so until the year 2017, that is after steady rise for decades. The trend has risen due to surging rates deaths ascribed to excessive alcohol consumption, drug overdose deaths, and suicide. These fatalities are occurring mostly among the Americans who are working and have increased suddenly amongst white adults living in communities which have less economic opportunities. Most of the communities have their manufacturing and mining industries collapsed; there is reduction of workforces especially through automation, and presence of cheaper labour. For a long time, jobs that ensured that most workers in United States with little education own home and educate their children in college have reduced in most rural American counties. Since the jobs are no longer there as it used to be, individuals in those counties could become prone to the despair diseases as well as their emotional welfare suffering.

The policies that give most people access to America’s dream of building its economy could change the live of most people and also enhance their health (Katz, 2019). The article recognizes that new discoveries cannot prove that absence of social mobility reduces lives whereas presence of social mobility directly lengthens the people’s lives. Instead, the findings suggest that there is a strong relation between having the chance to prosper and reason to thrive. For instance, two men who are poor and whose families have household incomes found in the bottom 25 percent with one living in a county with less economic opportunity while the other one in a county with more economic opportunity.

For the one stating in a county with less economic opportunity, when his children will be 30 there household incomes will perhaps be less compared to what their parents used to provide. For the man who is living in a country with more economic opportunities, probably his children’s household incomes at 30 will exceed that of their parents. Because in such an area, the man will get a good job after a certain period of time that will enable him support his family fully including educating his children up to college level. On average, the man living in the county with more economic opportunities will outlive the one living in county with less economic opportunities by eighteen months. The findings show that for most wealthy Americans, their Home Counties social motilities had almost no bearing of their life expectancy.

References

Collins, R. (2019). The credential society: An historical sociology of education and stratification. Columbia University Press.

Katz, S. M. (2019). Reformed American dreams: Welfare mothers, higher education, and activism. Rutgers University Press.

Seligson, M. A. (2019). The gap between rich and poor: Contending perspectives on the political economy of development. Routledge.

Ransome, P. (2019). Sociology and the future of work: contemporary discourses and debates. Routledge.