> "and everything around them becoming 10x worse as a result?" (Note my emphasis) You are begging the question here. Consider the alternative hypothesis, that

> "and everything around them becoming 10x worse as a result?" (Note my emphasis) You are begging the question here. Consider the alternative hypothesis, that things went to shit and they switched to a cheaper form of cocaine. 'And', not 'because'. In fact, one can hypothesis that both changes were triggered by another factor that you have failed to mention.