Sick of POVERTY by Robert Sapolsky

Poverty and poor health tend to go hand in hand as pointed out in the article; in
examining the socioeconomic status (SES), from the wealthy upper stratum of society to every
step down, there is a worsening of health conditions. A point tackled in the article is the
correlation of the SES and health. It pointed out that the common idea that those living in
poverty have less access to medical facilities and health care and that those people have
unhealthy lifestyle are inadequate to explain the phenomenon. The main argument of the author
for such correlation is on the psychosocial stress associated with those living in poverty.
As persuasive the authors arguments may be, I do not think some of the findings are
directly applicable to the status of our society in the Philippines.
The author pointed out case studies that were made in western countries with clearly
more sophisticated and advance technology and medical facilities. Even in the first point that the
author set aside, such may be true for countries with universal health care and even with those
first world countries, but in the case of the Philippines, where there are even provinces and
barrios having no access to any health care and people dying without being able to see any health
care professional, the contention of the author holds no ground.
The psychosocial stress may clearly have an effect towards the correlation between
poverty and health but this rest on the perceptions of the individual towards himself and the
environment because although we are in a third world country, there are people who would rank
themselves high on terms of how they are doing even if evidence proves the contrary, this is the
manner of thinking of our society, thus although they have affected health, in the case of the
Philippines, the author might as well include it in the list of those inadequate in explaining the
phenomenon.
Lastly, there is a difference in perception of what poverty is. As can be inferred from the
article, the authors notion of poverty is similar to what can be categorized as middle class living
in a third world country like the Philippines and not dealing with the extreme poverty.