Free market capitalism, social accountability and equity in early human (child) development.

839 The following manuscript is written by Dr Fraser Mustard, a scientist who for more than 10 years has promoted early child development for all children nationally and internationally. He outlines the complex socioeconomic and political factors our society faces to create more equity in child development, noting that the recently released World Health Organization report on the social determinants of health has a chapter titled, ‘Equity from the start’ (chapter 5). He has also tried to set out the difference between free market capitalism with social accountability, and without social accountability. As he says, the Scandinavian countries as free market economies with social accountability tend to spend more on the early generation than Canadians and Americans do. The challenge he notes is: Can we ensure that our investments for the different age groups meet our goals in social accountability? It is very urgently ‘time for action’ on his vision!