Dying for Growth Global Inequality & the Health of the Poor

Is economic "growth" killing the poor? The Institute for Health and Social Justice brings us the answers in Dying for Growth. An extraordinary collection of fourteen hard-hitting case studies from Haiti to the US, Dying for Growth exposes the interests behind a system that consigns a fifth of the world's population to live (and die) on less than a dollar a day. Rooted in the lives of people waging heart-wrenching struggles against a new, systemic form of poverty, these studies don't just document inequality -- they pinpoint its underlying causes.

Looking at the effects of international restructuring strategies on the poor, the increasing control trans-national corporations exert over world health, and the impact of U.S. drug policy on global inequality, Dying for Growth debunks the myths of global capitalism, including:

Myth: Throwing loans at developing nations will cure poverty.

Fact: As shown in "Sickness Amidst Recovery: Public Debt and Private Suffering in a Peruvian Shanty Town", loans can make things worse.

Myth: Getting rid of big government automatically improves the standard of living.

Fact: Cutting services can lead to calamity, as detailed in "Neoliberal Economic Policy, State Desertion and the Russian Health Crisis". Myth: The free market is a panacea.

Fact: There's nothing liberating about modern capitalism, as demonstrated in "'Todo Bajo Control': The Costs of 'Free' Trade to Mexican Maquiladora Workers".

Dying for Growth concludes with an extensive section on alternatives to standard models. Included is a chapter on health and revolution in Cuba, "The Threat of a Good Example", and a plan for action, "Pragmatic Solidarity: What You Can Do".

With passionrarely found in works of comparable analytic rigor, Dying for Growth tells the stories of people trapped in the machine of growth, and compels readers to recognize that the problem of inequality is not one of insufficient resources, nor even of inefficiency -- the problem is power.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 511-566) and index.

Introduction : what is growing? Who is dying? / Joyce V. Millen ... et al. -- Getting a grip on the global economy / John Gershman and Alec Irwin -- Terms reconsidered : decoding development discourse / Aaron Shalow and Alec Irwin -- Hypocrisies of development and the health of the Haitian poor / Paul Farmer and Didi Bertrand -- Theoretical therapies, remote remedies : SAPs and the political ecology of poverty and health in Africa / Brooke G. Schoepf ... et al. -- Sickness amidst recovery : public debt and private suffering in Peru / Jim Yong Kim ... et al. -- Neoliberal economic policy, "State desertion," and the Russian health crisis / Mark G. Field ... et al. -- Dying for growth, part I : transnational corporations and the health of the poor / Joyce V. Millen and Timothy H. Holtz -- Dying for growth, part II : the political influence of national and transnational corporations / Joyce V. Millen ... et al. -- Tragedy without end : the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster / Timothy H. Holtz -- Neoliberal trade and investment and the health of Maquiladora workers on the U.S.- Mexico border / Joel Brenner ... et al. -- The drug war in perspective / Arnold Chien ... et al. --"The threat of a good example" : health and revolution in Cuba / Aviva Chomsky -- The smoke and mirrors of health reform in El Salvador : community health NGOs and the not-so-neoliberal state / Sandy Smith-Nonini -- Conclusion : pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will / Joyce V. Millen... et al -- Pragmatic solidarity / Heena Patel ... et al.