Nick said:post 114320 I think that the macro-scale implications of Peat's ideas about the negative effects of stress, authoritarianism, learned helplessness, and lack of creativity are that a healthy society would have to be radically different from capitalism and allow for maximum autonomy and community. I think this would have much greater effects for health and well-being than could be achieved through diet alone. It is no coincidence that Peat references anarchists like Kropotkin and Illich.
To quote Ivan Illich (from Medical Nemesis): "An advanced industrial society is sick-making because it disables people from coping with their environment and, when they break down, substitutes a "clinical," or therapeutic, prosthesis for the broken relationships. People would rebel against such an environment if medicine did not explain their biological disorientation as a defect in their health, rather than as a defect in the way of life which is imposed on them or which they impose on themselves."
However, in the mean time we are stuck with capitalism and wage slavery. For those with the economic opportunities to pursue it (eg. access to middle class jobs), I think that financial independance/early retirement could be perhaps one of the most powerful tools to improve one's health and well being in the long run. Once one has reached financial independance and no longer has to work, endless creative opportunities, greatly increased autonomy, the ability to pursue one's passions, and the ability to completely avoid rote work and authoritarian people/situations could possibly solve many people's health problems without any other changes.
For an example of what I mean by financial independance, early retirement: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
I think Ivan Illich meant well, but I think his concept of an advance industrial society being "sick making" is economically wrong. Manufacturing jobs have lifted 500 million people out of poverty into the middle class in China. Industrial economies are essential for middle class work and good living standards. Which is why the U.S it's becoming more like a feudalistic society. Because of off shoring and free trade agreements.
Sure, automation will become 100 percent of manufacturing jobs in society one day, but until that day comes we shouldn't shy away from doing what works. Part of moving forward is to make sure we are not moving backward so we don't lose what took 100 years to develop.
This so called "post-industrial" economy is literally nothing more than a tollbooth, service, and fee-charging economy. The largest sector in the U.S is real estate. Banks making outrages loans to drown people in debt.
There is nothing wrong with protectionism, higher wages mean higher productivity.
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