Inequality in the UK

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The five richest families in the United Kingdom own more wealth than the bottom 13 million people.  The extreme inequality these numbers illustrate will likely be a motivating factor for UK voters in the imminent general election. These voters have a clear choice: accept the years of austerity that have deepened UK inequality or set a course for a more equitable future. (Inequality.org).

We are accustomed to talking about inequality in the US, but the UK is just as bad, and getting worse.  The possibilities for the man in the street to have a calm, rewarding and happy life are reduced when corporations and the ultra-rich are able to skew government policy to their own advantage.  Britain has had a long and severe bout of deliberate cutbacks to most social programmes.  The people who live far from London have felt ignored and poorer every year. But it looks as if this  will be getting even worse shortly, as the UK leaves the EU.

The welfare of the greatest number is the legitimate concern of Epicureans.  It is quite clear that massive, yawning gaps in wealth are bad for the man in the street, bad for the people with the money, and a threat to what little democracy we have left.  This is not party political comment, just a statement of fact.

Optimism boosts longevity

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People with optimistic outlooks tend to live longer than their more negative peers, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have found. The study drew on data from two long-running studies of Americans aged over 60: one of 1,500 male war veterans, and one of 70,000 female nurses. At the start of both, the participants had completed questionnaires to gauge how optimistic they were, and had also been asked about other factors likely to influence their longevity, including diet, health and exercise.

Analysis of the data, adjusted to take account of these “confounders”, revealed that most optimistic participants lived 10% to 15% longer on average than the least optimistic ones, and that they were significantly more likely to live to the age of 85. “Healthier behaviours and lower levels of depression only partially explained our findings,” said lead researcher Dr Lewina Lee. “Initial evidence from other studies suggests that more optimistic people tend to have goals and the confidence to reach them, are more effective in problem-solving, and they may be better at regulating their emotions during stressful situations.” The exciting possibility raised by the findings, she added, is that we may be able to “promote healthy and resilient ageing by cultivating psycho-social assets such as optimism” in people.   (The Week, 7 September 2019)

It is hard to remain an optimist given the climate crisis and the emergence all over the world of corrupt so-called “strong men”, whose motivation is primarily to stay where they are (on top) indefinitely, and enrich themselves and their cronies.

Peace of mind and happiness comes most consistently when education is good and accessible , everyone has access to decent healthcare, when the gap between rich and poor is minimized, and there are opportunities for advancement and self- improvement for everyone regardless of race or birth.

This seems as if it should be glaringly obvious, but clearly, as far as huge swathes of humanity are concerned, it is anything but.  We are miles askew from mass ataraxia.

 

More on secret government databases

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Rights campaigners in Britain have described as “utterly chilling” a secret database compiled by counter-terrorism police containing personal information about thousands of people referred to the government’s controversial anti-radicalisation Prevent programme.

The Prevent Case Management (PCM) database is accessible to all police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Home Office is also able to request data from it, according to documents sent to the human rights group Liberty, and seen by The Guardian.  Prevent is a voluntary programme which aims to divert people from terrorism before they offend. Up until now it was not known that police could enter details from each Prevent referral into the PCM database, including personal details and reasons for the referral. Gracie Bradley, of Liberty, said it was “utterly chilling that potentially thousands of people, including children, are on a secret government database because of what they’re perceived to think or believe”. (The Guardian 7 Oct 2019)

The movement, all over the world towards misuse of available technology is growing apace.  China, Russia, Saudi Arabia – the list is getting longer.   We imagine we are living in a democracy, but the shades of totalitarianism are getting more ominous.  People, often jobless and desperate, are installing governments that will, if allowed to, remove all accepted human rights. We should be allowed to believe what we believe.   I do agree that we should fight terrorism, but openly and democratically.

 

Gene profiling by US police

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People add their genetic data to genealogy DNA databanks in the hope of tracing long-lost relatives, biological parents and so on. They don’t expect their genomes to be accessed by the police. Yet officials in the US have used “investigative genetic genealogy” in more than 100 cases. One genetic testing company, Family Tree DNA, has had to apologize to users for sharing data with the FBI.

The attraction of such databases to law enforcement is clear. Just 3 million profiles from a particular population will generate a match with a third cousin or closer for 90 per cent of DNA samples. With a match, police can use public records to build  family trees and home in on people who fit the suspect’s age, location and even physical appearance.  They can even collect biological material from non-suspects without alerting them, the material to be retained in police databases as so-called “abandoned” DNA.

These DNA searches jeopardise privacy in several ways. It takes only a relatively small number of profiles to effectively waive the genomic privacy of hundreds of millions of people. An investigator who looks at the records of dozens of people linked by biology – even if they aren’t linked to each other in the real world in any way – will learn a lot of private information, with the obvious potential for abuse. 

In a new twist, police in Florida recently obtained a warrant to search all GED match’s opted-out profiles, causing disquiet among direct-to-consumer genomic testing firms. Such services hold the data of millions of people who have had their genomes screened, whether for genealogical or health reasons.  Since US privacy laws are anaemic, the least well-resourced DNA companies may prove attractive targets to the FBI and police.

More controls are urgently needed. The 21st Century Cures Act, enacted by the US Congress in 2016, created a legal protection known as a “certificate of confidentiality” to prevent law enforcement from accessing sensitive information collected to advance medical knowledge. Similar protection could be extended to recreational genetics 

12055345767968669487.jpgThe Department of Justice is currently working on a set of regulatory restrictions in order to beef up “anaemic” privacy laws, but the distaste for regulation may mean nothing much happens.  (Based on an edited article by Erin Murphy, New Scientist,  Nov 16 2019).

All who support or subscribe to Epicurean thought should be alarmed by the fact that modern technology is being used to track us and build secret databases on our lives.  It took massive effort and manpower on the part of tyrants like Hitler and Stalin to create “ Big Brother” systems of suppressing free comment and thought.  The new technology is quite easily and cheaply used.  It’s relatively easy to misuse it.  For every advance there is always a group eagerly casting aside ethical behavior.

Which foods are good for you?

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For most medical issues random control trials, involving sometimes thousands of people, are usual.  But  most research on food is only observational, using unreliable food diaries and then tracking the health of participants.  About a million nutrition research papers have been published, but a fraction of these are good quality, randomized studies.  Most are very short in timespan.  The fact is that the effects of diet change take years to become obvious.

It turns out that you can take vitamin supplements and eat whole grains, fruit, vegetables and fish, and there is no reliable proof that they have any affect on mortality rates, heart attacks. cancer or anything else.

The problem is partly explained by the fact that people with low incomes tend to have unhealthy lives generally.  On the other hand those who are prosperous and who eat, say, blueberries, have fewer heart attacks because they have more effective healthcare and other privileges of money. How do you judge whether health outcomes are due to the poverty or the prosperity? Do  the blueberries matter?

What has happened over the years is that researchers have been able, without huge projects or even a lot of work, to find “evidence” that their favorite health food is the answer to long healthy life.  Moreover the media boosts interesting findings that make headlines, without looking at the scientific evidence.

The answer lies in Epicurean moderation:  eat a wide variety of foods but moderately.  Then  you will be reasonably (moderately?) fit.

(Written after reading an article on food by by Clare Wilson,  New Scientist, July 13, 2019)