I came across this chart today via Nicholas Christakis.Impressive declines in child-mortality is one
I came across this chart today via Nicholas Christakis.Impressive declines in child-mortality is one of the ways the world has gotten dramatically better over the last century. Today, child mortality in most wealthy countries is below 5 per 1,000 live births. The US does considerably worse, mostly as a result of large geographic and racial disparities.Which, to me, is another reason to cringe every time a “let the South secede” or “red staters are real the welfare queens” meme spreads in the wake of some awful policy or statement concocted by a southern, conservative politician. Whatever you think of that terrible-pol-of-the-moment, he will be fine post-secession. He’ll be fine after rich blue states have stopped wealth transfers to poorer red states. He’ll be fine after the Jesusland meme makes another pass through the internet. But the disadvantaged constituents represented by that terrible pol will not be fine. They need the help of a national polity that aim to protect the worst-off among us. Any kind of politics that isn’t geared toward the interests of parents of vulnerable infants in Mississippi doesn’t deserve the name “liberalism” or “social justice.” -- source link
#politics#poverty