The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills [PDF, ePub, Mobi]

Politicians have talked endlessly about the seismic economic and social impacts of the recent financial crisis, but many continue to ignore its disastrous effects on human health - and have even exacerbated them, by adopting harsh austerity measures and cutting key social programs at a time when constituents need them most. The result, as pioneering public health experts David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu reveal in this provocative book, is that many countries have turned their recessions into veritable epidemics, ruining or extinguishing thousands of lives in a misguided attempt to balance budgets and shore up financial markets. Yet sound alternative policies could instead help improve economies and protect public health at the same time.

In The Body Economic, Stuckler and Basu mine data from around the globe and throughout history to show how government policy becomes a matter of life and death during financial crises. In a series of historical case studies stretching from 1930s America, to Russia and Indonesia in the 1990s, to present-day Greece, Britain, Spain, and the U.S., Stuckler and Basu reveal that governmental mismanagement of financial strife has resulted in a grim array of human tragedies, from suicides to HIV infections. Yet people can and do stay healthy, and even get healthier, during downturns. During the Great Depression, U.S. deaths actually plummeted, and today Iceland, Norway, and Japan are happier and healthier than ever, proof that public wellbeing need not be sacrificed for fiscal health.

Full of shocking and counterintuitive revelations and bold policy recommendations, The Body Economic offers an alternative to austerity - one that will prevent widespread suffering, both now and in the future.

"Meticulously researched and richly annotated, The Body Economic is nonetheless a very accessible and engaging book. The authors succeed admirably in making the case that downsizing (or dismantling) the social safety nets that exist to protect those in need directly leads to increased sickness and death within the general population.... The lessons contained within The Body Economic should be carefully considered by both policy makers and constituents."
--Boston Globe

"Stuckler and Basu provide a capable summary of the basic problems with austerity economics as economics, but their signal contribution in this book is to focus on the health effects of austerity.... They find that, the more austerity was practiced in a state or country, the more people got sick and the more people died. In short, 'Austerity Kills' is more than just a slogan. Austerity doesn't work as economics, and it kills people in the bargain."
--The New Republic

"[This] message... is explosive, backed by a decade of research, and based on reams of publicly available data.... In a powerful new book, The Body Economic, Stuckler and his colleague Sanjay Basu... show that austerity is now having a 'devastating effect' on public health in Europe and North America."
--The Guardian

"Oxford Senior Research leader Stuckler and Stanford epidemiologist Basu offer insight into the economic crisis - including the Great Recession - and its effect on public health, arguing that countries attempt to fix recessions by balancing budgets, but have failed to protect public well-being."
--Publishers Weekly

"A dramatic study emphasizing some of the combined consequences of ideological obsessions and bureaucratic thoughtlessness."
--Kirkus Reviews

"This informative book will add important perspective to the ongoing debate on the consequences of economic policies."
--Booklist

Dr. David Stuckler is a Senior Research Leader at Oxford University and Honorary Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He lives in Oxford, England.

Dr. Sanjay Basu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and an epidemiologist at the Prevention Research Center of Stanford University. A former Rhodes Scholar, he lives in San Francisco.

17 Reviews
5 star: (14)
4 star: (1)
3 star: (1)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (1)