Poverty is Painful- Literally

Time Magazine just reported that Americans in households making less than $30,000 per year spend nearly 20 percent of their lives in moderate to severe pain - more than 2 1/2 times the rate for households earning above $100,000.  At lower incomes, pain largely results from physically intensive jobs together with less access to health care.  

Poor people live shorter than wealthier people,  a considerable portion of their lives is spent in pain from physical work, and their day to day life is a struggle.   We need to fight the internal war on poverty - with at least the resources we expend on external wars.

Source:  

Kingsbury, Kathleen, "Millions of Americans in Chronic Pain."  Time Magazine.  2 May 2008. http://www.time.com/time/health/ article/0,8599,173255,00.html.