Miles
Somebody: Who? We all do. If you don't think preventing mothers from dying in childbirth and having children routinely live past the age of 5 is worthy, then by all means say so.
The funny thing is, when socialist countries and universal health care systems in social democratic states produce improved health outcomes and longer life-spans we point to these as achievements of the left and of collective planning. When these developments are noted in the capitalist world at large, we suddenly have to problematize the worthiness of these things. Come on.
I do fear that some on the left resent the raising of living standards though. If regenerative medicine offers the prospect of extended healthy life-span should we refuse it because of Malthusian fears of environmental disaster? I hope not, or else we'll be sacrificing millions of innocents to the ravenous, imaginary goddess Gaia. I'd rather see the left take the mantle of progress away from the bourgeoisie, who increasingly seems itself to have lost interest in expanding the productive forces in the developed world, and prefers to seek profits in financial speculation, public school privatization, and intellectual property rents.