Response to Episode One Unnatural Causes

 1. The main ideas of the film are that everything a person has access to  plays a part as to everything else that goes on in their daily lives. This includes a persons health, overall life expectancy, income, education, and career. The film goes into discussing  how if one of these things is not doing well or isn't of easy access to the individual that that individual overall will see a decline in the other factors mentioned before. For example if a student doesn't have a ton of money they may not have the resources to get an education or a higher paying job. The lack of money can lead to food insecurity. Food insecurity can lead to a student not preforming well academically and may develop health complications from that as well. Then with the lack of money may not have health insurance and could end up owing a lot of money and going further into debt or not getting proper treatment and suffering with the illness for awhile which can lead to the loss of a job or loss of education. Everything would end up spilling into another category and making it more stressful for the individual. The film goes into detail about how this has a long term affect on those in different classes. The film discusses how people who are wealthier, can afford the more expensive homes that are located in nicer communities. These upper class families can also afford more organic food that provide more nutrients to those who are consuming it. The film shows one woman of a lower class who is going grocery shopping and is buying a family size meal that costs very little because that is all that she can afford. She lives in a lower income community and shops on a very strict budget because that is all she can afford. This problem leads to food insecurity and other health issues from lack of resources that are needed to stay healthy.

2. Capitalism plays a lot into this because they don't provide adequate resources to those who need it. With capitalism not everyone is able to afford healthcare, healthy nutritious food, clean water, or even sustainable housing. Never mind, have basic luxuries such as a TV or internet connection which gives people who can afford it the upper hand when it comes to obtaining nicer jobs to make more money or to be able to afford an education or having the resources needed to at least get a high school education. Chibber in his article says "How can it be that in a society with such enormous resources and weath, a thin layer of the population at the top gets to have everything, while millions upon millions experience life as a daily grind, a struggle to make ends meet?" ( Chibber 3) This just barely touches upon how a capitalist society contains all of the resources needed but they are not accessible or affordable to everyone and only a small percentage can actually afford and have access to the resources that they need in order to prosper in every way possible. With being part of the overall top percent which leads to the access to healthcare and nutritious food, overall stress is decreased and that creates more positive  mental health and as mentioned in the video allows for the average life expectancy to increase. On the other hand, as the video showed, the lack of resources in a capitalist society leads to a shorter life on average. In order to change this Chibber suggests that we come up with solutions that "reject the ideas that people's fate should be left to how well they do on the labor market". (Chibber, 39)

3. This means that we as ELA teachers need to consider that during the pandemic not every student may have connection to the internet. Not every student may have the ability to order needed books to read or even have a computer. The students during the pandemic may be high risk and may not be able to leave the house and that can take a toll on a students mental health as well along with if a student gets sick or has someone they know get sick they may need to miss classes due to other obligations. They also may be facing food insecurity and when students are hungry it becomes harder for them to focus and also for them to concentrate on tasks that need to be done. If students become sick and can't afford healthcare or proper treatment they can be out of school for some time which may lead them to falling behind or simply not being able to continue their education.We as educators need to really be mindful in what we are assigning, provide accommodations where needed, provide resources and help students in any way that we can.