News Highlights
Two stories in the news especially caught my attention this morning. Well, actually three. They were:
· The verbal posturing and bullying by both North Korea President and the President of the United States.
· The NPR, August, 2017 story about the success of the cash aid experiment in Zambia.
· The announcement by the President of the United States that he would not follow the recommendations of his handpicked commission to study the opioid epidemic in the United States and declare a National Emergency, but would focus on going after the drug dealers. He is quoted in several news sources, including NPR, as saying that the drug epidemic will be solved by going after the drug dealers. To be fair he did also mention working with “health care” and law enforcement experts, but the general import of his thinking seems to be that if people cannot get access to certain drugs they will quit using and, thus, quit dying.
I am not sure that I need to say anything more about the bullying and posturing by the Presidents of North Korea and the United States. Both are threatening the overwhelming use of force. Both sides are obviously convinced that they can threaten the other side until they behave in the way which seems desirable to that side.
The cash aid experiment in Zambia once again proves that if one gives poor people a minimal amount of extra cash (in the Zambia experiment, $18.00 a month) many if not most will use the money to improve their lives. One couple, for example, saved for a year and began a business of buying and reselling mats to people in a larger city. The first load of mats they sold netted them a profit of $340.00. Overall this experiment showed that people who received this modest amount of aid boosted their spending by 50%. If they got an extra $100.00 they spent an extra $200.00. Obviously shop owners made more money, employees worked more, more taxes were paid, and the entire economy did better.
The program will not continue in Zambia despite its success. The disabled and those unable to work for other reasons such as age will get some additional aid but the “lazy, physically abled, beer drinking people” will get no aid. Because of inaccurate beliefs, such as fear that someone getting something for nothing and a general belief that people are poor by choice or by virtue of their bad decisions (are bad people), giving aid to people like the couple who saved the money and started a small business is “socially unacceptable.”
The approach by President Trump to the opioid epidemic in this country seems to be based upon the beliefs that:
· Drug dealers are never those addicted.
· Drug addiction is a matter of choice. Thus, if one takes away the certain drugs those addicted and dying will quit using and automatically “choose” to think and act like a non-addict.
· Drug addicts will not find new drugs of choice to feed their addiction.
· Drug addicts are merely people making bad decisions because of bad drug dealers.
· Punishing people is an effective deterrent to future crimes such as selling drugs.
· Statistics that show that in 2016 between 59,000 and 65,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States. Does this not warrant declaring a national emergency? This is more people then died in the entire Vietnam War, more than died of AIDS in 1995, and more than died in car crashes during its peak in 1972.
· Treatment should not be our primary line of defense, but rather the war on drugs which all experts seem to agree has not been successful will be renewed.
· Addiction to power, alcohol, other drugs, sex, and things are separated and unrelated to a serious “dis ease” in our society.
The irony of all these example is that false beliefs seem to continue to have a power stronger than the results of any formal or informal research. Whether it is the false beliefs about addicts, drug dealers, poor people, or the effectiveness of bullying, the ability of we humans to hold on to our false beliefs is remarkable. The real irony is, of course, the passionate concern by certain segments of the society in the United States about fake news and yet the very folks who are so concerned about fake news tenaciously hold on to false beliefs – beliefs unsupported by any scientific research.
It does seem as if we humans are an interesting, perverse group.
We may want to be aware of our own contradictions and our own tendencies to hold on to beliefs that provide some temporary comfort. We may also want to:
· Continue to help each other identify beliefs which research is not supporting.
· Non-judgmentally engage each other in loving, respectful, informed discussions about some of our prejudices about poor people, addiction, and the effectiveness of such behavior as bullying.
· Continue to be supportive in whatever way we can of research about what works in creating a more just, cooperative, healthy society.
· Be aware of the temptation to bully the bully who is bullying the bully.
Written August 9, 2017
Two stories in the news especially caught my attention this morning. Well, actually three. They were:
· The verbal posturing and bullying by both North Korea President and the President of the United States.
· The NPR, August, 2017 story about the success of the cash aid experiment in Zambia.
· The announcement by the President of the United States that he would not follow the recommendations of his handpicked commission to study the opioid epidemic in the United States and declare a National Emergency, but would focus on going after the drug dealers. He is quoted in several news sources, including NPR, as saying that the drug epidemic will be solved by going after the drug dealers. To be fair he did also mention working with “health care” and law enforcement experts, but the general import of his thinking seems to be that if people cannot get access to certain drugs they will quit using and, thus, quit dying.
I am not sure that I need to say anything more about the bullying and posturing by the Presidents of North Korea and the United States. Both are threatening the overwhelming use of force. Both sides are obviously convinced that they can threaten the other side until they behave in the way which seems desirable to that side.
The cash aid experiment in Zambia once again proves that if one gives poor people a minimal amount of extra cash (in the Zambia experiment, $18.00 a month) many if not most will use the money to improve their lives. One couple, for example, saved for a year and began a business of buying and reselling mats to people in a larger city. The first load of mats they sold netted them a profit of $340.00. Overall this experiment showed that people who received this modest amount of aid boosted their spending by 50%. If they got an extra $100.00 they spent an extra $200.00. Obviously shop owners made more money, employees worked more, more taxes were paid, and the entire economy did better.
The program will not continue in Zambia despite its success. The disabled and those unable to work for other reasons such as age will get some additional aid but the “lazy, physically abled, beer drinking people” will get no aid. Because of inaccurate beliefs, such as fear that someone getting something for nothing and a general belief that people are poor by choice or by virtue of their bad decisions (are bad people), giving aid to people like the couple who saved the money and started a small business is “socially unacceptable.”
The approach by President Trump to the opioid epidemic in this country seems to be based upon the beliefs that:
· Drug dealers are never those addicted.
· Drug addiction is a matter of choice. Thus, if one takes away the certain drugs those addicted and dying will quit using and automatically “choose” to think and act like a non-addict.
· Drug addicts will not find new drugs of choice to feed their addiction.
· Drug addicts are merely people making bad decisions because of bad drug dealers.
· Punishing people is an effective deterrent to future crimes such as selling drugs.
· Statistics that show that in 2016 between 59,000 and 65,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States. Does this not warrant declaring a national emergency? This is more people then died in the entire Vietnam War, more than died of AIDS in 1995, and more than died in car crashes during its peak in 1972.
· Treatment should not be our primary line of defense, but rather the war on drugs which all experts seem to agree has not been successful will be renewed.
· Addiction to power, alcohol, other drugs, sex, and things are separated and unrelated to a serious “dis ease” in our society.
The irony of all these example is that false beliefs seem to continue to have a power stronger than the results of any formal or informal research. Whether it is the false beliefs about addicts, drug dealers, poor people, or the effectiveness of bullying, the ability of we humans to hold on to our false beliefs is remarkable. The real irony is, of course, the passionate concern by certain segments of the society in the United States about fake news and yet the very folks who are so concerned about fake news tenaciously hold on to false beliefs – beliefs unsupported by any scientific research.
It does seem as if we humans are an interesting, perverse group.
We may want to be aware of our own contradictions and our own tendencies to hold on to beliefs that provide some temporary comfort. We may also want to:
· Continue to help each other identify beliefs which research is not supporting.
· Non-judgmentally engage each other in loving, respectful, informed discussions about some of our prejudices about poor people, addiction, and the effectiveness of such behavior as bullying.
· Continue to be supportive in whatever way we can of research about what works in creating a more just, cooperative, healthy society.
· Be aware of the temptation to bully the bully who is bullying the bully.
Written August 9, 2017
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