Britain's welfare state has failed to move the health and life expectancy of the poorest any closer to the standard set by those who have the most. As material circumstances are powerful determinants of sickness and death rates, society is obligated to search its political economy for unfairness and inefficiencies in its generation and distribution of wealth. The mistreatment of economic rent lies at the heart of the matter. The proper source of revenue for society's welfare, its age-old privatization remains enshrined in law, creating unjust distortions in the distribution of the national income, overprivilege and underprivilege, and unnatural contrasts in health and life span. This book represents a mjaor analysis of the political economy in Britain over the past 1000 years. The author demonstrates an impressive and thorough knowledge of law, economics, politics, medicine, and social history. The assessment of the privatization of the public income and its consequences represents an astonishing "tour de force".