Capitalist crises, social capital and well-being

Alleviating poverty is among the most laudable aim of the Millennium Development Goals. However, policies aimed at alleviating poverty could only be successful if they are underpinned by clear understanding of mechanisms which contribute to poverty incidences and distributions. This study seeks to investigate the effect of major capitalist crises, such as the Asian financial crisis on health distribution and access; and how social capital, as one of the resources available to all rich and poor, mediates this relationship. The need to focus on major crisis is derived from an understanding that severe crises are very much a feature of modern capitalism. Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey I investigate the dynamics of well-being prior to and after the crises. Despite the net damage to people’s health caused by the crisis, damage to people’s ability to pay for health services is even deeper. After the crisis, not all people in need of treatments are able to access health services; there is a marked drop in the number of visits to health facilities despite the reported deterioration of health condition. However, there is evidence of beneficial effects of community social capital. Social capital as measured in terms of social cohesion and number of community volunteers in health activities show two kinds of beneficial effect on health. First, community social social cohesion has a protective effect on people’s health; and so do community volunteers. More over, in the longer run, community social capital in terms of the number of volunteers has a positive provision effect which enables more access to health facilities in the troubled period.