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Originally Posted by DanaC
Narrowing the gap in health terms means improving the health of deprived communities and striving to bring the life expectancy of those communities into parity with the better off communities.
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I totally applaud your efforts, believe me. What I'm nitpicking over is the mental approach to the problem, if that makes sense. As long as the standard is in any way viewed in light of what the better off communities have, the focus is always going to subconsciously be on entitlement. Should I have an abundance of food because my neighbor has an abundance of food, or because it's a good thing for me to eat well? One is an external justification, the other internal. Internal justifications are always going to be more effective. Raising life expectancy is good--period. Lowering teen conception is good--period. These should be the goals. When the goals are couched in terms only of matching what someone else has, the motivations become tainted. On some level, you stop being able to objectively determine what is good or bad, only what is more or less than that other guy. I know it's semantics, but like I said, I think attitude is the biggest factor in helping people help themselves, and the attitude of examining what other people have first is a destructive one.