New Year's Gloom

I'm told it's traditional for writers to reflect as the year closes, wrap up the last twelve months and all, but I’ve always been a “look to the future” kind of guy. I suppose I'm arrogant enough to think I'm doing well in life - I'm certainly pretentious enough to pretend - reflection be damned. And I sing Auld Lang Syne as badly as you'd expect.

I am starting to feel a nascent draw to the past, however. It’s hit me that I've lived more years than I can statistically expect to see going forward, and, being closer to the grave than the cradle (probably), the past makes up more of my life now. Kids are playing outside my house as I write, and it's heartening to know that they won't reach their halfway points until they're several years older than I am now. Life expectancy in Britain has lengthened like it has all across the rich world, but I'll wager few places have such a generational divide.

Almost every young guy I see is a picture of health, well over six feet tall and athletic. They look like sports stars. They don't smoke, you rarely see them drunk and thank God they're well-behaved. As Thin Lizzy sang, "if the boys wanna fight, you better let 'em." We certainly couldn't stop 'em. My generation of binge-drinking, drug-dabbling, chlamydia-spreading degenerates lacks the physicality. We had fun in our time.

I'm writing this from a position of strange privilege. I live in an affluent area with excellent schools, well-funded sports clubs, and fresh (often artisan) food everywhere. Of course the youngsters grow up Arcadian. We even have peacocks roaming around town. But the area's affluence is not derived from all of us sitting on large bank balances, far from it - most people here would be described as working-to-middle class. What sets this place apart is the presence of a large “state infrastructure” employer and the resulting lack of deprivation.

When people earn, they can afford to buy things, maintain their houses, go to restaurants and attend gym classes, which generates jobs for others who can do the same. Shops stay open, pubs keep serving and the music of rich human lives can be heard. Money works when it flows, and you don't have to be personally wealthy to benefit from it. Social capitalism succeeds here, particularly in healthcare, which I consider the greatest measure of a society.

I grew up somewhere very different - a London borough with high crime, rampant poverty and significant problems with substance abuse. In places like that, healthcare gets overwhelmed. More patients have multiple conditions that they acquire younger, and suffer for longer, and clinicians have to do more to cope with that. In some places, sick people have to wait weeks to be seen and often months or years for procedures.

Contrast that with where I live, now. I have a ten-minute walk to see a doctor in a well-lit, spacious building. Clinical support services and testing are on site, and an attached pharmacy dispenses my medication. I get better healthcare than most Brits, but I pay the same as everyone else - i.e. nothing, it’s all free. The system functions here because people are healthier and it isn't overburdened by need. People are healthier because the system works. It's a virtuous cycle that's entirely tax-funded, meaning everyone should benefit. They don't.

Top-notch healthcare, schools, sports facilities and food mean that children in areas like mine get a fantastic start in life - and if we formed our own country, it would have the world's highest life expectancy.* Brits in the worst areas have a life expectancy 7.4 years lower. Granted, if you're familiar with life expectancy statistics, you'll know that isn't a big inequality compared to some other countries, but in a nation with so much state involvement, it's beyond unfair. Of the advantages I just listed, only food isn't tax-funded. Get this - my food bill is cheaper out here than it would be in inner London. Geography matters, even in a country the size of Michigan.

This article has turned into a real downer for New Year's Eve, so let me spread some joy. The geography problem is fixable with enough money, and we have enough money, and can choose to spend it on poorer areas. And we're are not the only country grappling with this reality. All over Western democracies, people are crying out for leaders who will change the economic status quo, and people are making some interesting voting choices.

I don't want to write political content, but I understand why populists are gaining support. I don't like it - I think they're worse than the incumbents - but if I'd spent my adulthood in the place I grew up, stepping over dirty needles and avoiding knife crime and getting worse healthcare than people a few miles away (and expecting to die years before them!), I wouldn't vote for a political incumbent. I'd gamble on a populist new guy because why should I care if he turns out wrong and the country burns? It wouldn't be working for me anyway. More gloom, I know.

I suppose I should write something about the year ahead, about what I'll do professionally, how I hope these articles will develop, my extracurricular aims. I haven't a clue. But, I'm arrogant and pretentious enough to think it will all go swimmingly.

Happy New Year.

*This statement is open to the charge “don't all countries have high life expectancy if you only consider the socio-economically better off?” Yes, and you can cherry-pick stats so that it’s “the world’s highest” if you want, but I’m trying to say something different. My area isn't "rich" but rather lacks deprivation. I think better distribution of state funds could make that the norm, I'm certain it should, and I admit to some clumsy data work. For anyone who does want to look into the data - and do I better job than I have - may I offer some more shocking and useful (but hard to explain in a non-technical article) data on healthy life expectancy as a starting point.

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