What experiences have we had to draw from regarding health?
When did mankind become smart?
Oddly enough, there seems to be a lack of confidence as to governance in general and provision of health services in particular. We see recessions and bailouts, and failures such that migrations are on the rise. Some result from climate issues; many of these are compounding issues. With improved governance, climate issues can be managed, or at least adapted to. As it stands, such pressures can make things much worse.
The 'long tail' of history
These problems are nothing new. Scientists have indicated that humans have been genetically stable for 100,000 years or so. The prevalent modern conception is that civilization pulled itself together only in the last few hundred years. Nonetheless, food, clothing, and shelter has been provided individually and severally to great effect for a good long time -- using capacity that has similarly existed for a good long time. Image: www.ancient.eu/article/680/daily-life-in-ancient-mesopotamia/
What experiences have we had to draw from regarding health?
"...foragers [were] neither idyllically affluent nor nasty and brutish. Somewhere between these extremes, we recognize significant challenges posed by seasonal shortages, interpersonal violence, and chronic parasitic infections. But we can also argue that ... foragers did not experience the kinds of acute infections that we see in sedentary agricultural societies leading to the present day." (Barrett & Armelagos, 2013, Oxford, 27-28). There has been much, much more to the story, and many lose ends had been left, that we are well-served to investigate...
Meeting the needs of the people is the fundamental task of leadership
Mark Nathan Cohen has been a student of early civilization. He concluded that, based on may kinds of archaeological study, means of living of early peoples were different than has been generally understood. In concert with many studies, he concluded that approximately 10,000 years ago, a decision was made to engage in intensive agriculture in order to substantially boost the population. In the process, health levels actually deteriorated. Resulting civilization involved tradeoffs, which were often complex and difficult.
Civilization is health | Health is Civilization
Success in this activity entails the development of civilization. Why are physiological and social needs of the people subject to chimeric markets and many forms of risk that were looked at anciently, according to now-available records, from much more practical perspectives. Sustenance was assured to the degree possible. The "great organizations" of Sumer, for example, from 4th millennium BCE onward, demonstrated a powerful and effective policy of combining individual, local production of food necessities with group-oriented production of grain in high volume for purposes of trade and storage. Cities developed for such purposes were amazing as to their scope and effectiveness.
Understanding the history of human success
Representative sampling is sorely missing in the the study of governance prospects. Europeans took great effort to understand the Greeks, but nothing before. There was no way to know -- at least in the way of written records. They were missing out on a mother-load of information. What did exist was buried in the deserts and otherwise not available. This was the case until the 19th century, when records were found and deciphered in Mesopotamia and elsewhere that told different stories with respect to development and the underpinnings of civilization. The image is a reconstruction of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur.
