The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills: Recessions, Budget Battles, and the Politics of Life and Death - Rilegato

Stuckler, David; Basu, Sanjay

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0465063985 ISBN 13: 9780465063987

Casa editrice: Basic Books, 2013

Riassunto

Politicians have talked endlessly about the seismic economic and social impacts of the recent financial crisis, but many continue to ignore its disastrous effects on human healthand have even exacerbated them, by adopting harsh austerity measures and cutting key social programs at a time when constituents need them most. The result, as pioneering public health experts David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu reveal in this provocative book, is that many countries have turned their recessions into veritable epidemics, ruining or extinguishing thousands of lives in a misguided attempt to balance budgets and shore up financial markets. Yet sound alternative policies could instead help improve economies and protect public health at the same time.

In The Body Economic, Stuckler and Basu mine data from around the globe and throughout history to show how government policy becomes a matter of life and death during financial crises. In a series of historical case studies stretching from 1930s America, to Russia and Indonesia in the 1990s, to present-day Greece, Britain, Spain, and the U.S., Stuckler and Basu reveal that governmental mismanagement of financial strife has resulted in a grim array of human tragedies, from suicides to HIV infections. Yet people can and do stay healthy, and even get healthier, during downturns. During the Great Depression, U.S. deaths actually plummeted, and today Iceland, Norway, and Japan are happier and healthier than ever, proof that public wellbeing need not be sacrificed for fiscal health.

Full of shocking and counterintuitive revelations and bold policy recommendations,The Body Economic offers an alternative to austerityone that will prevent widespread suffering, both now and in the future.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Dr. David Stuckler is a Senior Research Leader at Oxford University and Honorary Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He lives in Oxford, England.

Dr. Sanjay Basu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and an epidemiologist at the Prevention Research Center of Stanford University. A former Rhodes Scholar, he lives in San Francisco.

Product Description:

Book by Stuckler David Basu Sanjay

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Basic Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0465063985
• ISBN 13: 9780465063987
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 216