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The bigger pictures is that potent drugs have an effect that is hard to one-up, and that gives drug providers an edge other any other authority figure. That's

The bigger pictures is that potent drugs have an effect that is hard to one-up, and that gives drug providers an edge other any other authority figure. That's how it played in the Opium wars between the British Empire and China, that's probably a main reason why alcohol and other drugs are prohibited in so many religions, or why they're limited to the leaders of the religion (shamans etc.)

jojobas 3y ago
Drugs have an edge over any other source of pleasure. The biggest problem with opiate rehab is that nothing at all can compare in terms of pleasure they deliver. Today you're a productive member of society, seeking pleasure and satisfaction in family, career, hobbies and curiosity, tomorrow you're an absolutely happy wreck in the corner. No, of course not, it's all stinky emperors trying to maintain dominance.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  > Today you're a productive member of society, seeking pleasure and satisfaction in family, career, hobbies and curiosity, tomorrow you're an absolutely happy wreck in the corner. By that token, anything that could disable a healthy member of society would be a huge problem warranting a war on it. Cars litteraly killing people fits the description but you don't see governments pannicking. Same way severe disabilities from workspace risks are mostly seen as a business risk and the OSHA won't have half the budget of what is spent on anti-drug efforts.
  - jojobas 3y ago
    >By that token, anything that could disable a healthy member of society would be a huge problem warranting a war on it. Er, yes? You might have heard of this whole "healthcare" thing that is war on diseases, for one. Cars are a bit more complicated, sure they kill ~40k people per year in the states, stealing let's say 30 years of productive life per casualty on average = 1,2M man-years per year. In order to offset that, they'd have to save 1.2M man hours over the entire US population (let's say 300M) = 35 hours a year per person. I'm pretty sure cars save 6 minutes a day for an average American, compared to any possible alternative, so the bottom lines is that cars are worth it. (Kick me if I stuffed up my maths)
    - bagacrap 3y ago
      Setting aside that there are plenty of viable alternatives to building a city that requires cars, our cars also have plenty of room to get safer with no loss of utility. We really could get by with 95% fewer ginormous pickups, and cars don't need to be able to go >80 mph.
      - jojobas 3y ago
        If you want a car that does 0-60 in less than 20 seconds (and you do) it will also go >80. Wearing a motorcycle helmet in a car would instantly make them a lot safer.
        bagacrap 3y ago
        I feel like it would be pretty easy to artificially limit cars to 75mph. Also I drove a car that took 15 seconds to get to 60 throughout high school and it was fine. Wearing a motorcycle helmet inside a car does nothing for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. Also I would argue there's a loss of utility because it probably interferes with peripheral vision and messes up your hair. But sure, make people wear a helmet, fine by me. The point is that there's room for easy improvement in car safety, and a helmet counts, I suppose.
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      > Er, yes? You might have heard of this whole "healthcare" thing that is war on diseases, for one. I heard about rising prices of healthcare and how much of a business it is in the US. "war on diseases" would never be how it's qualified, it's more like a "diseases business" at this point. On cars, the math should not be limited to deaths, any accident that results in a disability would enter the count. I wouldn't try to do such complex calculation, and look at countries that have similar geography but a history of actually caring about the human cost: Canada's average mileage per driver is short of 10 000 miles [0], that's 25% less than US drivers, and Canada already has 25% less cars per capita [1]. The US is at least that far from the equilibrum, with little political will to do something about it. [0] https://www.mychoice.ca/blog/whats-the-average-mileage-driven-per-year-in-canada/ https://www.mychoice.ca/blog/whats-the-average-mileage-drive... [1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/registered-vehicles-per-1000-people https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/registered-vehicles-per-1...

jojobas 3y ago

Drugs have an edge over any other source of pleasure. The biggest problem with opiate rehab is that nothing at all can compare in terms of pleasure they deliver. Today you're a productive member of society, seeking pleasure and satisfaction in family, career, hobbies and curiosity, tomorrow you're an absolutely happy wreck in the corner. No, of course not, it's all stinky emperors trying to maintain dominance.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
makeitdouble 3y ago
> Today you're a productive member of society, seeking pleasure and satisfaction in family, career, hobbies and curiosity, tomorrow you're an absolutely happy wreck in the corner. By that token, anything that could disable a healthy member of society would be a huge problem warranting a war on it. Cars litteraly killing people fits the description but you don't see governments pannicking. Same way severe disabilities from workspace risks are mostly seen as a business risk and the OSHA won't have half the budget of what is spent on anti-drug efforts.
- jojobas 3y ago
  >By that token, anything that could disable a healthy member of society would be a huge problem warranting a war on it. Er, yes? You might have heard of this whole "healthcare" thing that is war on diseases, for one. Cars are a bit more complicated, sure they kill ~40k people per year in the states, stealing let's say 30 years of productive life per casualty on average = 1,2M man-years per year. In order to offset that, they'd have to save 1.2M man hours over the entire US population (let's say 300M) = 35 hours a year per person. I'm pretty sure cars save 6 minutes a day for an average American, compared to any possible alternative, so the bottom lines is that cars are worth it. (Kick me if I stuffed up my maths)
  - bagacrap 3y ago
    Setting aside that there are plenty of viable alternatives to building a city that requires cars, our cars also have plenty of room to get safer with no loss of utility. We really could get by with 95% fewer ginormous pickups, and cars don't need to be able to go >80 mph.
    - jojobas 3y ago
      If you want a car that does 0-60 in less than 20 seconds (and you do) it will also go >80. Wearing a motorcycle helmet in a car would instantly make them a lot safer.
      - bagacrap 3y ago
        I feel like it would be pretty easy to artificially limit cars to 75mph. Also I drove a car that took 15 seconds to get to 60 throughout high school and it was fine. Wearing a motorcycle helmet inside a car does nothing for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. Also I would argue there's a loss of utility because it probably interferes with peripheral vision and messes up your hair. But sure, make people wear a helmet, fine by me. The point is that there's room for easy improvement in car safety, and a helmet counts, I suppose.
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    > Er, yes? You might have heard of this whole "healthcare" thing that is war on diseases, for one. I heard about rising prices of healthcare and how much of a business it is in the US. "war on diseases" would never be how it's qualified, it's more like a "diseases business" at this point. On cars, the math should not be limited to deaths, any accident that results in a disability would enter the count. I wouldn't try to do such complex calculation, and look at countries that have similar geography but a history of actually caring about the human cost: Canada's average mileage per driver is short of 10 000 miles [0], that's 25% less than US drivers, and Canada already has 25% less cars per capita [1]. The US is at least that far from the equilibrum, with little political will to do something about it. [0] https://www.mychoice.ca/blog/whats-the-average-mileage-driven-per-year-in-canada/ https://www.mychoice.ca/blog/whats-the-average-mileage-drive... [1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/registered-vehicles-per-1000-people https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/registered-vehicles-per-1...