Falling life expectancy – a sign of The Times
As the rising numbers of working poor and unemployed and the rapidly increasing cost of necessaries (food, clothing, housing, utilities) can no longer be contained by Britain’s dwindling social safety net, our bourgeois media are forced to acknowledge the existence of a deep cost of living crisis. How do they portray the misery of existence of the working class without pointing the figure at its root cause – capitalism? They don’t! Their tactics are threefold: reinforce the alleged failure of the only alternative system – socialism; create conflict between sections of the working class so blame is inwardly facing (racism) and expose the powerlessness of the bourgeois state to solve the contradictions of the capitalist system. Only one of their tactics is true – let’s examine.
The rise and fall of Barrow
On April 21 The Times featured an article entitled, ‘How life expectancy in the UK fell into a Soviet-style slump’. It begins by highlighting the historical vibrancy of Barrow-in-Furness, a coastal town in Cumbria that until the 1970s was a booming centre of shipbuilding and heavy industry.
In fact, from the early 19th to mid-20th century, Barrow was one of the UK’s most important shipbuilding and steel towns, centred on the massive Vickers shipyard (later BAE Systems) and by WW1 it was one of the fastest-growing towns in Europe. It built submarines, battleships, and naval vessels—anchoring Barrow’s economy to Britain’s military-industrial complex.
Imagine the skills of the working people who lived there! In shipbuilding there would have been platers, welders, boilermakers, pipefitters, electricians, shipwrights, fitter and mechanical engineers, machinists and turners, painters and sprayers, riggers and crane operators. In the steel works there would have been foundry workers, millwrights and furnace operators and then in the support industries there would be toolmakers, labourers, clerical workers and cleaners. A highly skilled, proud, confident and competent community with purpose, security and a decent standard of living.
Then, in the 1970s, it was all taken away by the whim of the capitalists in pursuit of more profit – as capitalists do, for that is the fundamental premise of the system – to make more profit and build capital! Privatisation and the opportunity to export the work to places where the labour was cheaper meant mass redundancies. Between the 1980s and 1990s, Barrow lost over 10,000 industrial jobs, devastating the local economy forevermore.
Now, according to The Times, Barrow is “One of the most deprived communities in the country, it is struggling in terms of income and educational attainment. Heroin abuse has been a problem and economic inactivity is high. Its challenges can be captured by a single statistic — male life expectancy here, 71 years, is on a par with war-torn Syria.”
This outcome didn’t happen by chance. It wasn’t a surprise to the politicians and capitalists who made those decisions. It wasn’t bad luck. It was the predictable outcome, the simple cause and effect of their decisions and as such, it exemplifies, clarifies, illustrates, and proves the contempt with which the working class is held by the oppressing ruling class, politicians – the State. When workers with their skills and cleverness are needed, they are valued and provided with houses along with decent pay and conditions. But when cheaper alternatives become available in the form of workers elsewhere or technology, well workers can rot. And rot they did in Barrow.
But back to The Times. No meaningful mention of why the people of Barrow met such an end. Merely a flippant “Barrow Island has not recovered from the loss in the Nineties of thousands of shipyard jobs”. Perhaps the ‘journalist’ will think differently as AI replaces his or her profession and she or he too becomes a victim of capitalism – as we all inevitably will.
Marx and Engels spelled it out in the Communist Manifesto,
“The lower strata of the middle class… all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on… and partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production“— Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto, Chapter I.
The truth behind life expectancy
The article then goes onto discuss the general fall in British life expectancy stating that whilst Barrow Island is an extreme case — it is in the worst 0.5 per cent of areas for male life expectancy in the UK — it is part of a national trend. Apparently, for the first time in more than a century, life expectancy in Britain is not improving, in fact for many communities it is getting worse. There is some 26 years difference in life expectancy between a child born in a deprived area such as Barrow and one born in a wealthy area such as Richmond. What repugnant inequality capitalism wreaks!
So what solutions are presented? Apparently, we need an expert to inform us that there is a close relation between social and economic conditions and life expectancy. According to Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, “it is a good measure of how well we’re doing in meeting people’s needs”. How prophetic, professor! But how do you know that? He explains, “The reason that we knew that the Soviet Union and the communist countries of central and eastern Europe were doing really badly socially [during the Cold War] is because life expectancy wasn’t improving.” Hmmm. No further explanation, no numbers or facts. No science. So let’s provide some facts that our so-called expert failed to do.
Statistics show that socialist states, even those under embargoes and sanctions, often outperform comparable capitalist states in basic health outcomes — because they prioritise public health and education over profit.
Russian life expectancy before the 1917 revolution – 32 years. By 1960-70 it was 68 years. Following the collapse of the socialist system in 1991, life expectancy plummeted owing to privatisation, poverty, and social breakdown.
Chinese life expectancy before the revolution was 35-40 years. As at 2023, it was 78 years. In fact, after the 1949 Communist Revolution, when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established under Mao Zedong, the change in life expectancy was so staggering it was widely acknowledged—even by critics—as one of the most rapid improvements in public health in modern history.
North Korean life expectancy before the revolution was 35-40 years, today, despite rigorous sanctions, it is 72 years.
Cuban life expectancy before the revolution was 58 years, today it is 78-80 years.
The people of Nicaragua and Venezuela also enjoy longer lives despite rigorous sanctions. In the last 45 years, the Nicaraguan people have seen their life expectancy improve from 57 years in 1978 to 75 years in 2023 and Venezuelans in 25 years have improved from 71 years to 74.
It is simply common sense that such outcomes would be achieved under socialism when public welfare is prioritised over private profit. A socialist system heavily invests in universal healthcare, education, sanitation, and nutrition as fundamental human rights rather than market commodities. Socialist governments typically redistribute resources to ensure even the poorest citizens have access to basic medical care, vaccinations, maternal health services, and clean water, which dramatically reduces infant mortality and preventable diseases. Unlike capitalist systems where healthcare access is often tied to income, employment, or insurance, socialist states build national health infrastructures that reach rural and working-class populations. Additionally, socialist planning allows for mass mobilisation of doctors, public health campaigns, and infrastructure development without needing to appease corporate interests. As a result, even under economic embargoes or resource constraints inflicted by the imperialists, many socialist countries have achieved life expectancy levels on par with — or even higher than — wealthier capitalist nations.
That’s what our expert professor should have told us!
A sign of The Times
So what does The Times suggest might give hope to the poor people of Barrow? (They don’t mention any hope for the rest of suffering Britain.) Perhaps a new contract to build nuclear submarines as part of AUKUS and to once again put Barrow at risk to the vagaries and capriciousness of the military complex – because it worked out so well the last time! Or, as Derek Brook, the leader of the Labour group on the local council suggests, to come up with a long-term plan.
The long-term plan, Derek, is socialism! The only tactic of The Times article that has a semblance of truth is the powerlessness of the bourgeois state to solve the contradictions of the capitalist system. Socialism, a system encompassing planned production to meet the needs of the people is clearly going to solve the ills of our society. Ills created and continually perpetrated by capitalism, a system of production for profit.
As a tool of propaganda for capitalism, The Times cannot give us the right answer to the ever-decreasing conditions of the British working class, but the answers do exist.