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Austerity leads to higher death rates.

JP Hochbaum

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A story in Bloomberg illustrates how the combination of budgets slashed thanks to austerity policies leads directly to deaths. The Wall Street Journal described last year how distress in the Greek economy had produced a significant increase in suicides. A new Bloomberg story recounts how severe cutbacks in hospital staffing have enabled superbugs that is hard to combat even under normal circumstances to inflict even more fatalities than usual in Greek hospitals. An ugly side to this problem is that overreliance on antibiotics in Greece created the conditions that helped these potent infectious agents to develop.

I don’t know about you, but this has a Dickensian sound to it. People dying in due to chronic hospital understaffing sits uncomfortably with the pristine, efficient image of modern medicine. But this is far from the only instance where the crisis has served to reinstitute a more brutal social order.\

The Wages of Austerity: Superbug Runs Wild in Greek Hospitals « naked capitalism

In my opinion austerity is simply immoral and inhumane.
 
The superbug is antibiotic resistant - is there evidence that if they had even twice as many nurses they'd save more patients who are suffering from these infections?

Is mass numbers really all that's necessary?
 
In related news, quitting heroin leads to opioid withdrawal.


"It's serious pain now, or apocalyptic pain later." - Kyle Bass
 
The superbug is antibiotic resistant - is there evidence that if they had even twice as many nurses they'd save more patients who are suffering from these infections?

Is mass numbers really all that's necessary?

Well they have hte same drugs and methods of all other nations, yet seem to suffer more cases. One has to think the contributing factor is lack of nurses.
 
Well they have hte same drugs and methods of all other nations, yet seem to suffer more cases. One has to think the contributing factor is lack of nurses.

Well - he mentioned a lack of hand-washing because of laziness so maybe it's a hygiene issues?

Or maybe it's because they're a hub for international travel and fancy and thus exposed to a more toxic pool of uckies.
 
You know what else leads to (much) higher death rates?

Societal/economic collapse and chaos.
 
You know what else leads to (much) higher death rates?

Societal/economic collapse and chaos.

Which they mentioned: people committing suicide.

Well - if insurance companies would cover suicide then that downward trend might spike the economy. (terrible joke, I know)
 
You know what else leads to (much) higher death rates?

Societal/economic collapse and chaos.

Which is what we are seeing in Europe now, with the removal of more government expenditures there is a direct correlation to that societal chaos increasing.
 
Which is what we are seeing in Europe now, with the removal of more government expenditures there is a direct correlation to that societal chaos increasing.

The real issue is that governments should never have taken on that responsibility in the first place. Once you provide a feeding trough for the people, they get really pissed when it's taken away.
 
Well they have hte same drugs and methods of all other nations, yet seem to suffer more cases. One has to think the contributing factor is lack of nurses.

Only if the lack of nurses is directly tied to patients not receiving their antibiotics as prescribed. Having been a nurse for almost 30 years, I can tell you that giving medications is pretty much at the top of the priority list on the job. If the nursing staff is so short that medications are not being given, then that's a hell of a nursing shortage.
 
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The real issue is that governments should never have taken on that responsibility in the first place. Once you provide a feeding trough for the people, they get really pissed when it's taken away.
THat is just theory not based on any sort of evidence. SO we will leave that debate alone.
 
Only if the lack of nurses is directly tied to patients not receiving their antibiotics as prescribed.

Like teh article said, they are getting the anti-biotics. But the issue is that the lack of nurses is leading to more mistakes, not fewer anti-biotics.
 
Which is what we are seeing in Europe now, with the removal of more government expenditures there is a direct correlation to that societal chaos increasing.

They set up their system stupidly.

They now have the choice of either salvaging what they can or watching the entire house of cards collapse. And then there will be mass chaos.

Sentimentality is really beside the point now. You deal with the reality of what needs to be done, not what you wish you could do.
 
Like teh article said, they are getting the anti-biotics. But the issue is that the lack of nurses is leading to more mistakes, not fewer anti-biotics.

If they are getting the antibiotics, the nursing isn't the issue. If there are mistakes, then what kind of mistakes? Are they getting the wrong antibiotics?
 
THat is just theory not based on any sort of evidence. SO we will leave that debate alone.

No, it is intricately tied in with the issue. Government is cutting back and instituting austerity measures. This is the result of social spending policy when it's no longer sustainable.
 
No, it is intricately tied in with the issue. Government is cutting back and instituting austerity measures. This is the result of social spending policy when it's no longer sustainable.

It is the result of Europe's Central Bank being a flawed system and Greece not being monetarily sovereign.
 
If they are getting the antibiotics, the nursing isn't the issue. If there are mistakes, then what kind of mistakes? Are they getting the wrong antibiotics?

I think you need to read the article, it explains the issue. The issue isn't anti-biotics, but prevention and stopping the spread of bacteria. It goes into detail in how a lack of nurses contributes to this.
 
It is the result of Europe's Central Bank being a flawed system and Greece not being monetarily sovereign.

While i agree with you, Greece did about the dumbest thing a nation could do given their monetary circumstances and lack of a viable internal growth engine: continued deficits during periods of the countries largest economic expansion since antiquity.
 
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While i agree with you, Greece did about the dumbest thing a nation could do given their monetary circumstances and lack of a viable internal growth engine: continued deficits during periods of the countries largest economic expansion since antiquity.

Well are they really to blame for their economic collapse? Most of the collapse is due to private held debt.

Their error in judgement was in entering the EU.
 
A story in Bloomberg illustrates how the combination of budgets slashed thanks to austerity policies leads directly to deaths. The Wall Street Journal described last year how distress in the Greek economy had produced a significant increase in suicides. A new Bloomberg story recounts how severe cutbacks in hospital staffing have enabled superbugs that is hard to combat even under normal circumstances to inflict even more fatalities than usual in Greek hospitals. An ugly side to this problem is that overreliance on antibiotics in Greece created the conditions that helped these potent infectious agents to develop.

I don’t know about you, but this has a Dickensian sound to it. People dying in due to chronic hospital understaffing sits uncomfortably with the pristine, efficient image of modern medicine. But this is far from the only instance where the crisis has served to reinstitute a more brutal social order.\

The Wages of Austerity: Superbug Runs Wild in Greek Hospitals « naked capitalism

In my opinion austerity is simply immoral and inhumane.

Wow, you're amazing. You think govt's should continue spending money they don't have. Totally illogical.
 
Well are they really to blame for their economic collapse?

Of course they are! There is simply no excuse for running deficits during periods of continued economic growth, especially when such a level of growth is not sustainable for long periods of time.

Most of the collapse is due to private held debt.

The "collapse" is due to austerity. A nations inability to borrow at levels necessary to maintain (let alone expand upon) previous levels of expenditures will lead to negative shocks in unemployment.

Their error in judgement was in entering the EU.

Nonsense! Their error in judgement was in having a non-functioning tax scheme. Their error in judgement was in running fiscal deficits during periods of economic growth without the mechanisms in place to prevent credit market backlash in the event that net capital inflows dry up.

Sure it would be nice for them to flood drachmas throughout the forex market thereby inflating away much of their debt obligations. However, Greece would never have reached previous levels of economic growth without EU membership.
 
Well are they really to blame for their economic collapse? Most of the collapse is due to private held debt.

Their error in judgement was in entering the EU.

No, that's not what happened. Public debt, the government cooking the books when it came to fiscal policy, these things contributed in a major way.
 
A story in Bloomberg illustrates how the combination of budgets slashed thanks to austerity policies leads directly to deaths. The Wall Street Journal described last year how distress in the Greek economy had produced a significant increase in suicides. A new Bloomberg story recounts how severe cutbacks in hospital staffing have enabled superbugs that is hard to combat even under normal circumstances to inflict even more fatalities than usual in Greek hospitals. An ugly side to this problem is that overreliance on antibiotics in Greece created the conditions that helped these potent infectious agents to develop.

I don’t know about you, but this has a Dickensian sound to it. People dying in due to chronic hospital understaffing sits uncomfortably with the pristine, efficient image of modern medicine. But this is far from the only instance where the crisis has served to reinstitute a more brutal social order.\

The Wages of Austerity: Superbug Runs Wild in Greek Hospitals « naked capitalism

In my opinion austerity is simply immoral and inhumane.

creating dependency is simply immoral and inhumane
 
It amounts to little more than enslavement to the state.

absolutely-its like putting out a bird feeder and then stop filling it in the coldest day of the winter

lots of dead birds
 
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