A Pox on the House of Profit, the United Disease States of America…….but Wage Earners Can

A POX ON THE HOUSE OF PROFIT,
THE UNITED DISEASE STATES OF AMERICA…….BUT
WAGE EARNERS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

Syphilis, a preventable sexually transmitted disease (STD) has been increasing nearly every year since 2001, with a massive 71% increase between the years 2014-2016. Congenital syphilis reached a twenty year high in 2017. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2020/0715/p91.html

From 2014 through 2019 the STD chlamydia rose 19%, the STD gonorrhea rose 56%, syphilis rose 74% and congenital syphilis rose a massive 279% due to “reduced screening and testing opportunities”.(American Family Physician, 4/22)

Between 1990 and 2021, the U.S. experienced dramatic increases in obesity, diabetes, drug addiction, opioid deaths, and alcoholism. Since 2019 America has suffered well over 1 million preventable deaths from Covid-19, the virus that is still killing some 150,000 people yearly (12,000 per month) as of this moment.

Monkey Pox, another preventable disease, is rapidly spreading, and the U.S. now has the most cases of any country. There is a shortage of vaccines and testing capabilities combined with totally inadequate testing, contact tracing and isolation of infected individuals.

What is the main cause of this public health catastrophic collapse??

In 1980 the World Bank published a new health care sector policy advocating reducing public health infrastructure and opening the door to rampant privatization of health services and pharmaceutical supply.
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/649631468138271858/pdf/40968ocr.pdf
This policy was adopted by the US government. Federal Government share of public health expenditures plummeted from 60% in 1968 to 10% in 1983, where it has remained for forty years. This silent war on our Public Health Infrastructure carried out under both Democratic and Republican administrations has drained hundreds of billions of dollars from our Public Health Services, jeopardizing the health, safety and welfare of the population. Since 2009 alone, some $150 Billion has been defunded, along with the loss of some 60,000 jobs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695931/

What are the government’s priorities?

It looks like guns not butter, war not health, Profits not People. How do we turn this situation around?? Wage earners can take matters into their own hands.
Do we have to wait for politicians and judges to pass laws that protect our health and safety or… do we unite with our fellow workers and build rank and file democratically controlled unions and use our strength to strike for safer working conditions, more staff and better health care as nurses have done?
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/13000-california-rns-to-strike-june-10-as-part-of-largest-nurses-strike-in-us-history-95123899.html

Do we wait for politicians who, for over ten years, have promised to raise the poverty level minimum wage set at $7.25 in 2009, or… do we build and organize strikes and use our power to fight for higher wages and a limit on work hours as teachers, health care workers, doctors, transit workers, mineworkers, and others across the country have done?

Workers are striking all over the world for their social needs. From pilots in Germany to health care workers in Canada and Turkey, from rail workers and Amazon workers in England to shipyard workers in South Korea, and from teachers, miners, and auto workers in the U.S. to the Indian General Strike of 250 million workers.


A strike movement has the potential to spread nationally and internationally while expanding demands from the economic to the political. A general strike could demand:

Safe work sites and free public health care for all
A minimum wage of $30 an hour
Equal rights for all
Freedom to control one's own body
Soldiers could strike to demand an end to war and refuse to fight.

Without wage earners, the economy grinds to a halt, and the profits stop flowing. Workers have vast potential power to change the world and create a healthy egalitarian society.

8/11/22
Dr. Nayvin Gordon, gordonnayvin [at] yahoo.com
Dr. Gordon is a California Family Physician who writes about health and politics. His articles have appeared in: The Mercury News, Counterpunch, Z magazine, Countercurrents, Scoop Independent News, Anderson Valley Advertiser, Socialist Viewpoint, Multiracial Unity Blog, Scientific American, The Oakland Tribune, The Journal of Family Practice, American Family Physician and Dissident Voice