Debt, wellbeing, government, the NHS and the 3rd sector

Since the Magna Carter the people of the UK have been dealing with the
problems of debt. Even those feudal barons had to concede the misery
caused by the personal debt system. It is fundamentally
distress-inducing. This has been now for at least a millennium and laws
have been put in place to reduce this crime against humanity by society
and the financial system.

In the 1970s the UK saw a shift in the economy away from typical
industrial revolution-type industry towards a service-based industry
however as people's expectations of life had changed with the
materialism and consumerism of the late 20th century there was an
associated trend for destigmatisation of personal debt. By the early
21st century the level of personal debt was astronomical and the
finance, housing and retail sector depended on this continuing to grow
at an exponential rate. The economy demanded it and the governments were
conveniently blinded because of the continued stability it brought.

Did anyone ever count the number of suicides and related deaths caused
by the need for a debt-driven economy? Was there ever a measure of the
personal tragedy that problem debt causes?

In the UK the plight of debt was brought to the forefront of the
nation's attention by Mind's Debt and Mental Health campaign. It was a
campaign in the fucking obvious but one that was so needed because the
government, academia, mental health professionals and the credit
industry were blind to what they did to people.

That's part of the point of this piece. The number of deaths and the
distress - the mortality and morbidity (mental and physical) - caused by
the finance industry still isn't on the government agenda.

Last year saw a sliver of light for the people of the UK and the world.
There started a movement in political and government circles to consider
the objective of government to be concerned with more than GDP. It often
is in practice but the wellbeing vision was about so much more. It drew
from the Bhutanese and their concept of Gross Domestic Happiness. One
practical measure in the UK was New Horizons which had the hope of
making mental healthcare part of all government.

Then the financial crisis hit. Vision was crushed. The world economy
risked a recession and without a government bailout there was a risk of
a financial crisis akin to the Great Depression. The result of the
failures of the government, finance industry and regulators and the
people who took the loans out the UK was forced to slash it's healthcare
budget.

The effects of an economic catastrophe on mortality and morbidity would
be far worse than the impact of the reduction in spending on NHS
services. It is still the burden of the NHS, the third sector and the
many kind indiividuals in this society to ensure the fallout of the
financial crisis has the least impact on the mental and physical health
of the nation.

The financial crisis will have put a lot more people into bad debt
situations and made many homeless. It will also have caused a few
suicides. More misery and more death can be avoided over the next few
years if the NHS and the third sector are well funded. They carry the
burden of the mistakes of the past, the real burden of people's lives
and well being.

In my opinion most people would trade the whole of the Crossrail project
and half the Olympics budgets for the lives that could be saved by
putting that money towards helping those who need help today. But then
I'm just a stupid idealist who likes to think other people think like me.