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A quick #thread on the costs of child poverty. @MSiUK_ (cc: @MarcusRashford )
1) In any society it’s most precious resource is it’s human beings. https://twitter.com/stevebakerhw/status/1318826026517090305
1) In any society it’s most precious resource is it’s human beings. https://twitter.com/stevebakerhw/status/1318826026517090305
2) The costs of addressing child poverty are minimal compare to the long term costs of not addressing it:
A poor socioeconomic start in life is linked to increased physical health problems, heart disease and stroke. Over a lifetime this costs £100,000s https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448460/
A poor socioeconomic start in life is linked to increased physical health problems, heart disease and stroke. Over a lifetime this costs £100,000s https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448460/
3) Mental health is also impacted , with higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicide. Again, treatment of these is incredibly expensive, not to mention the economic cost of losing a young and fit healthy person, quite apart from the tragedy. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicholas_Spencer4/publication/10588896_Social_Economic_and_Political_Determinants_of_Child_Health/links/5a2129c40f7e9b4d19283a27/Social-Economic-and-Political-Determinants-of-Child-Health.pdf
4) Poverty has an enormous social cost too, with increased rates of school truancy, and juvenile detention:
https://youth.gov/youth-topics/juvenile-justice/risk-and-protective-factors
Again, at HIGH cost to the economy.
https://youth.gov/youth-topics/juvenile-justice/risk-and-protective-factors
Again, at HIGH cost to the economy.
5) And through a phenomenon known as epigenetics, these risk factors can be passed down to the children of children in poverty, multiplying costs across GENERATIONS. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05778-1
6) Lastly, these are our society’s most precious resources; our future leaders inventors, teachers, scientists, innovators.
Imagine if Einstein died as a toddler due to poverty.
Imagine how many Einsteins already died.
Imagine if Einstein died as a toddler due to poverty.
Imagine how many Einsteins already died.
7) The long term cost of child poverty numbers in the hundreds of £billions, across generations, while the cost today is next to nothing.
As ever, a moral society and a functional and cost effective society are nearly the exactly same thing.
So end child poverty now. /end
As ever, a moral society and a functional and cost effective society are nearly the exactly same thing.
So end child poverty now. /end
