Poor people are not “trapped” by the lack of food and healthcare; it has been proven that most people have enough to eat and there is free public health system. As authors argue, “starvation exists in today’s world, but only as a result of the way the food gets shared among us”, and, “people avoid the public health system because it does not work well” (p 26 & p 55). Thus, poor people are “trapped” within the institutionalized practices regulating their access to food and healthcare. Since they are not trapped due to their personal choice, alleviating the factors that are keeping them trapped, could potentially ‘set them free’. Additionally, as several examples justified throughout the chapter, the decline of calorie consumption is not driven by declining incomes nor due to rising food prices – people were earning more real income and …show more content…
For example, “… casual laborers tend to work fewer days in a year than regular workers…” (p 135). Additionally, as discussed in the chapter, when poor people lose their source of income, “[the] loss of hope and the sense that there is no easy way out can make it that much harder to the have self-control needed to try to climb back up the hill” (p 140). Such risks also involve high level of stress, which makes it harder to focus and be productive. Although helping each other within a community is encouraged, it is not always enough to protect citizens from risks. Instead, “… the government should pay a part of insurance premiums for the poor” (p 155). Since poor people may be reluctant to buy insurance since, “… when disaster strikes, these kindly souls [government or international institutions] step in to help, and as a result, people actually don’t need insurance” (p 152). Also, poor people may not be familiar with the concept of insurance very