Food Instability In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

“The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth” by Marilyn Vos Savant is a quote that I hold very true to myself. All of my life I’ve believed that life isn’t about the breaths I take, it’s about the moments that take my breath away. I feel as if my believe fits right into the quote by Ms. Savant as she compares that believe to the importance of education. Many successful people, like Arne Duncan, have said that postsecondary education is extremely important when pursuing success in America’s economic system. I fully believe that thought and that is why I hold the value of education to a very high level.

The video features doctors, sociologists, psychologists, and public health professionals explaining how environmental factors contribute to a detrimental lifestyle and health status. In the video, Sociologist, David Williams explains that health is fixed in the quality of neighborhoods and housing. Also, the video explains that place matters because

Before we look at the different Social/Psychological Determinants of Health it is important firstly to define what a social determinant of health is. According to the World Health Organization (2017) “The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” These conditions are as a result of a wide range of factors that are ultimately governed by the way in which money, power and specific resources are shared at different levels including those at global, national and local levels. We have all been a part of and will experience different social determinants of health throughout our lives but it is the standard at which we experience these determinants that will ultimately lead onto them affecting our health or ultimately leaving us unaffected.

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

I was born and raised in Ethiopia, a country in the east of Africa. Currently, I live in the United States of America. Growing up in a developing country, I witnessed health, environmental, and social problems endured by communities, and specifically that people were unevenly affected based on their literacy level and livelihood. For instance, many citizens lost their lives due to limited access to and expensive costs of medical care. Subsequently, I have noticed similar issues in the United States. Social issues such as high cost of medical expense, limited access to healthy and affordable food and people being marginalization based on their livelihood. These issues are caused by systematic problems that affect minorities within the countries.

The social issue that I picked is homelessness. Homelessness is a real issue, even if we don’t always see it. Homelessness doesn’t just mean you don’t have a roof over your head, it means you don’t have food, a good education, a healthy lifestyle, or a warm place to sleep every night. Some people don’t think very highly about homeless people, they think that it's their fault that they are where they are in life. Homelessness is going to end up becoming a bigger problem. It doesn't seem like much now, but eventually it'll become an even bigger problem than it already is.

I attended the event titled Unnatural Causes Bad Sugar on Thursday, October 22 from 6 to 7 p.m. The event centered on the ways in which many factors influence people’s lives and significantly impact health. The first part of the event centered on watching a short video that focused on the damage to health that Native American tribes faced after they lost their water. There was a large increase in the amount of Native Americans who got diabetes and who were dying. It was thought that biology and genes were one of the main causes behind the increase in diabetes, but in reality there were many other factors. Geographic location, social and economic class status, and income level has an impact on a person’s health.

Health is the foremost need of every human being and there are various factors influencing it. Social determinants of health are the emerging topic in present scenario where they have to be considered to ensure good health to everyone. This essay shall focus on this aspect with a detailed description of SDOH in the first section followed by the reasons that exist behind considering income, housing and environment as the major factors. The last section shall deal with real time examples on such factors and their impacts on health conditions.

I think the objectives set forth in Healthy People are a step in the right direction. They set goals that may not always be reached 100% but they are realistic and attainable. They always show improvement in areas that need work. However, there are some discrepancies that definitely stop the progress that Healthy People has set forth. Market and social justice principles make it difficult for health care delivery to be distributed equally among the nation. Social problems are issues that also increase the difficulty for health care delivery to be effective, such as poverty or homelessness. There are also set backs that occur do to economical issues the nation is having. A recent issue was the recession in the late 2000 's that caused many Americans

Most people know the fourth amendment as a protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The constitution its self says “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…” (). What this means in terms of a search is if law enforcement wants to search your house, vehicle or residence they must obtain permission, or a search warrant. A warrant is issued by a judge or magistrate and it will require probable cause which would be a reasonable belief or fair probability that something illegal will be found or evidence to a crime will be found. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 [1925] In

Primary care is said to be the “first point of contact” for people when accessing the health care system in Ireland (Department of health and children 2001). The World health organisation(1978) outline that one of the main roles of primary health care is to provide access to care for the most vulnerable but also to identify and rectify the factors which lead to their early mortality. The Alma Ata declaration (1978) was a huge milestone in the development of primary care and they explain how essential it is for all populations’ health. Unfortunately the vulnerable populations in Ireland suffer the effects of the social determinates and also the health inequalities and die younger because they put up with a healthcare system which “places lesser value on the lives of those with lesser means” (Wren 2002). This is why primary health care is of uttermost importance, the nurse in the community must try to help prevent, educate and overcome these inequalities and provide the highest standards of health for all, which is not based on want but need.

In her memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls describes the events of her life as being below her own personal standards. Jeannette believed that if anybody found out that she wasn’t what she was made out to be, she would be seen in a different light. This belief stems from her traumatic childhood that relates to the theme of ideal vs real.!

Sociologist David Williams states that all policies impact health policy. This is exemplified across a wide rage of policies in the US. These policies are flawed and corrupt, polarizing the nation racially and by socioeconomic status (SES) and resulting in great disparities in health. Although policy and law has evolved, presenting a more progressive and “color-blind” front, it remains an obstacle to ending disparities in health. Many of these policies, such as housing, environmental, and labor, are interconnected and have many aspects to them that affect health policy. In order to address racial and socioeconomic disparities in health policy, we must address the policies that contribute to this disparity.

Health is an important element throughout our life. A person’s health can be affected by many social factors such as gender roles and economic positions. As there are differences in health status between different populations groups, health inequality is then formed, for example, differences in morbidity and mortality rates between people from different social classes.

Low income housing is a struggle for families who want to live a better lifestyle. There’s needs and wants and when you have low income you don’t have time/or enough money to get the want’s you have to worry if you have enough for monthly rent cause if you but something out of order and you don 't have enough for rent you getting evicted. Just like that so sometimes you gotta be mindful of what you want cause people who have low income paying jobs can’t get the things they want. You also want to be on the lookout for your living conditions because you don’t wanna live in a house where it’s infested with roaches or rodents making your house dirty with bacteria and diseases (Castillo). Another thing is that people who tend