4 ms·

Perhaps if the typical American was paid better and had more hope for the future then less would use such things to escape from reality.

jshen 5y ago
It’s more than that. High paid people in very demanding jobs also turn to it and drinking so they can “turn off” work for a bit.
sonicggg 5y ago
Of coursr, all the wealthy and successful people absolutely do not partake in recreational drugs.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  You missed "had more hope for the future"
somenameforme 5y ago
When saying things like this, I think you should intuitively consider the corollary of your sentence. If people are using drugs to "escape from reality" presumably because have insufficient money to do nicer things, then the implication is that people who have lots of money would use drugs at a substantially lower rate. And so this is pretty easy to test. I did a quick search for 'marijuana use by rate by income' and the first paper that I came upon [1] showed there is indeed quite a strong correlation between substance use and socioeconomic status - in other words, the richer or more privileged individuals were (in terms of coming from wealthy family backgrounds), the more likely they were to use drugs. So unless there is some confounding variable that we may not be considering, it seems fairly easy to reject the hypothesis that people are using drugs because of a lack of money. [1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3410945/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3410945/
- JaimeThompson 5y ago
  >t seems fairly easy to reject the hypothesis that people are using drugs because of a lack of money. To most people hope doesn't mean more money, it means a better future. These are not the same.
  - kortilla 5y ago
    You were the one who mentioned “paid better”. Don’t shift the goal posts.
    - JaimeThompson 5y ago
      >Perhaps if the typical American was paid better and had more hope for the future There isn't a period after better.
      - kortilla 5y ago
        It doesn’t matter, if you didn’t want people to discuss pay, you shouldn’t have mentioned it.

jshen 5y ago

It’s more than that. High paid people in very demanding jobs also turn to it and drinking so they can “turn off” work for a bit.

sonicggg 5y ago

Of coursr, all the wealthy and successful people absolutely do not partake in recreational drugs.

goodpoint 5y ago
You missed "had more hope for the future"

somenameforme 5y ago

When saying things like this, I think you should intuitively consider the corollary of your sentence. If people are using drugs to "escape from reality" presumably because have insufficient money to do nicer things, then the implication is that people who have lots of money would use drugs at a substantially lower rate. And so this is pretty easy to test. I did a quick search for 'marijuana use by rate by income' and the first paper that I came upon [1] showed there is indeed quite a strong correlation between substance use and socioeconomic status - in other words, the richer or more privileged individuals were (in terms of coming from wealthy family backgrounds), the more likely they were to use drugs. So unless there is some confounding variable that we may not be considering, it seems fairly easy to reject the hypothesis that people are using drugs because of a lack of money. [1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3410945/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3410945/

JaimeThompson 5y ago
>t seems fairly easy to reject the hypothesis that people are using drugs because of a lack of money. To most people hope doesn't mean more money, it means a better future. These are not the same.
- kortilla 5y ago
  You were the one who mentioned “paid better”. Don’t shift the goal posts.
  - JaimeThompson 5y ago
    >Perhaps if the typical American was paid better and had more hope for the future There isn't a period after better.
    - kortilla 5y ago
      It doesn’t matter, if you didn’t want people to discuss pay, you shouldn’t have mentioned it.