Glossary Building Post # 4

Glossary Terms:

• Superfoods
• Moral Licensing
• Moderation

Every consumer is facing the same problems when it comes to food. Hot topics such as nutrition, healthy eating, and the newest celebrity fad diets are popular among consumers of todays society. The question is how much do consumers truly understand about healthy choices when it comes to food. Many consumers do not have a healthy relationship when it comes to food. Terms such as moderation and superfoods are thrown around with abandon. Consumers also face issues with moral licensing, which can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food.

Many consumers think of moderation as not overeating, but it goes further than that. Moderation is technically an avoidance of extremes, this means too little and too much. Consumers have to understand that moderation is not eating healthy at certain meal and having donuts for breakfast, and a pizza for dinner a few days later because you have been ‘good’. Moderation practices such as this can lead consumers to engage in moral licensing. Many consumers have an unhealthy mental relationship with food, they categorize foods as good or bad when there really is no such thing in food. Consumers who engage in moral licensing will tell themselves, “I can have this pizza because I was good and ate that salad earlier”. This type of thinking becomes a destructive habit, consumers are more likely to eat junk food if they think this way. Consumers should not base their moral well-being on food as it ruins any chance of a healthy relationship with food.

Consumers should also be aware of market terms such as superfoods. Superfoods are not real, there are no new food that act as a nutritional superhero. Claimed superfood like blueberries, kale, spinach, salmon, etc. have always been around, but only recently have they been marketed as superfoods. Consumers should not take the label of superfoods at face value, instead they should be looking at the actual nutritional value of the food item and consider if it is actually what they need.

 

 

Glossary Building Post # 3

Glossary Terms:

• Misclassification of Employees (contractor jobs)
• Poverty
• Student Aid Bill of Rights

Finances are an integral part of everyday life, and everyone is a consumer when it comes to finances. Finances are not always easy to understand and consumers should be aware of certain terms and policies to better be able to protect themselves from debt and fraud. Terms such as the Misclassification of Employees (contract work), Poverty, and the Student Aid Bill of Rights are all important matters that consumers should be aware of in finances. Consumers should also know that financial health is not limited to just how much money an individual has, it also expands into subjects like employment, student debt, and poverty.

Did you know that over $14 million Americans are unemployed? Job hunting is often a daunting and expensive task for both individuals pursuing a job and employers offering employment. Consumers are vulnerable during job hunting, as time passes they slowly dig away at their savings. This could threaten to throw a consumer into a drastic financial situation if they go without a job for too long. No one wants to be out of a job for long, but consumers should be wary of offers that are too good to be true. Consumers seeking employment should be closely before accepting contract work. Some companies are illegally dubbing employees as contact workers rather than full-time employees to save on costs. By listing employees as contract workers the companies are saving revenue while depriving employees of important benefits. This practice is known as misclassification, an illegal and slow to fix exploitation of employees. Consumers should always thoroughly investigate a potential employer and any offered job before taking on employment.

What happens when you cannot find a job, and the savings are gone? This situation is a common one for many consumers. Poverty, actual poverty, is unfortunately a real problem in today’s society. Poverty is generally thought of as an inability to provide for oneself basic necessities such as food, water, or shelter. Say a consumer cannot find a job, the savings are gone, the kids are hungry, and the electricity has been cut off because they cannot pay the bill. This is a harsh struggle that many people have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Poverty is not something that can or should be ignored, and it is definitely not something that will go away on its own. Consumers need to be aware that they are not immune to poverty, and that they should be putting forth efforts to combat poverty.

Financial difficulties are not only affecting those in the workforce, these days it is common for college students to accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in debt in the pursuit of higher education. Student debt can become overwhelming, consumers need to keep track how much they owe, make payments early (if possible), and to know the grace period once out of school. Consumers with student debt should also be aware of the Student Aid Bill of Rights. The Student Aid Bill of Rights is a bill that provides consumers with protection as borrowers, and establishes the consumers right to a fair, affordable, quality loan to utilize for education. This bill is important to consumers because it affords consumers the flexibility to base payments upon income and to have the loan forgiven after a set number of years (generally around 25 years). The is a huge benefit to consumers as it means that the payment amounts can be adjusted to the consumers income, and it also allows for a responsive student feedback system to help shape the system more effectively and to hold lenders accountable for the services they are supposed to provide.

 

Glossary Building 5

The glossary post for this week is about illness and morality and how these are treated or enhanced. First, the article, “How Many Die from Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals?” talks about how many patients have died from medical mistakes. This article was interesting in the fact that not only was the number much higher than anticipated, but also because “There’s never been an actual count of how many patients experience preventable harm. So, we’re left with approximations, which are imperfect in part because of inaccuracies in medical records and the reluctance of some providers to report mistakes,” (Allen, 2013). To show an example of possible medical negligence, the next article is called “Geography is Destiny in Deaths from Kidney Failure, Study Shows”. This article talks about how depending on what region someone with end-stage kidney disease lives in, they have a better or worse chance of survival. It then goes on to discuss which kind of dialysis is better for kidney patients and frighteningly states that “Dialysis with an AV fistula is superior to other methods and offers a dramatic survival advantage… the fact that fewer than one in five people start dialysis with a fistula is a real public health concern” (John Hopkins Medicine, 2015). It then goes on to explain that those living in New England and the Pacific Northwest have the greatest chance (1 in 5) of going on dialysis with a fistula, whereas Texas and Southern California have the lowest chance (1 in 9). This is perhaps because the New England and Pacific Northwest regions pay doctors more than the Southern United States.

Next, as many Baby Boomers are getting older and may soon be at the point of needing assisted living or to live in some kind of aging community, the next article called “Aging in Community: The Communitarian Alternative to Aging in Place, Alone” talks about aging communities. Aging in community is not a new concept, many people grew up in a neighborhood, inherited the house from their parents and died there. However, with new medical procedures used to expand the lifespan, people are living longer and not necessarily better. This leads to the invention of assisted living facilities, but these facilities can be costly, and many Baby Boomers have not saved enough money or lost money in the recession of 2007. So communities have started banding together to provide better options for those in need of assisted living. For instance, as nearly 1 in 5 women over age 55 live in poverty, one community has established “house-sharing” for these women. Allowing them to live in a house without paying the full rent. This leads to a more understanding, helpful, and less expensive environment that a long-term care facility.

• Patient Safety: Very limited as evidenced by reports of hospital negligence and the number of medical mistakes contributing to patient deaths.
• Equal Treatment of Patients: Unable to exist in this country due to geographical and socioeconomic differences.
• Aging in Community: Communities banding together to help the older generations with general living requirements while costing significantly less that an assisted living facility.

Bibliography

Allen, M. (2013, September 20). How Many Die from Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals? Retrieved November 14, 2017, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals

Blanchard, J. (2014, April 2). Aging in Community: The Communitarian Alternative to Aging in Place, Alone. Retrieved November 14, 2017, from http://www.asaging.org/blog/aging-community-communitarian-alternative-aging-place-alone

Johns Hopkins Medicine. “Geography is destiny in deaths from kidney failure, study shows.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 June 2015. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150624115632.htm.

Illness and Morality Prompt One

As I plan to live in Washington State when I am of the age that this information will be pertinent to me, I have decided to look at the provided Washington agency’s website. Looking at this with the eyes of an uninformed consumer was difficult as I do believe that most consumers would do extensive research before committing their loved ones to a long-term care facility. However, if this was the first place the consumer started looking, I could see how this could be both helpful and confusing.

Somethings that were immediately helpful were the statement that Adult Protective Services will be checking for signs of abuse as there have been many stories reporting abuse of the elderly in long-term care facilities. Another helpful thing was that there was a section for the deaf and hard of hearing. Many elderly people have a hearing problem, and many of them would need additional assistance in everyday life, it is good to know that that is an option. Some less helpful things were the lack of a listed cost, if there was a minimum amount of time that someone had to stay in the facility, and what the guidelines and rules are as far as visitation goes. However, this is more a lack of information rather than provided confusing information. I would suggest that consumers look elsewhere for more information. For instance, sometimes other consumers can be extremely helpful, so looking somewhere like Yelp for some reviews would be possibly be helpful in answering some questions. Consumers should also call any long-term care facility they are considering for their loved ones and ask any lingering questions, and visit any facility that they are seriously considering. Doing this would allow the consumer to make a better-informed decision and allow their loved ones to live a happier life in an assisted living community.