"Meth Storm" and Corporate America

I watched a documentary on HBO recently from 2017 called "Meth Storm" about the police and people addicted to meth in Arkansas, It hit on a lot of points with meth, but they also mentioned how Wal-Mart came in and forced a lot of local stores to close, taking jobs.

Made me think, do you think corporation America contributed in some way to a lot of stuff going on with meth with opioids? Looking for people's opinion on the matter.

 
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Yes and no. There's a lot of complicated, moving parts for this one.

On one hand- do corporations have a responsibility to employ people? Or are the employees responsible for making the corporations profitable? Do corporations only have a responsibility to maximize value for shareholders? That's not an easy answer, despite whatever most people's business classes taught them. You can ask multiple people and get multiple answers.

Then we dive deeper into the world of employer-employee relationships. It's a dark and twisted one usually. In fact if we found a spouse who treated us like most employers treat us, we'd be called insane. The bottom line is: to any employer your value is your utility to them. Bottom line. Even if they train you up, it's called investing in you. They expect a return on that investment. This is capitalism, not socialism. They give you money, you do work for them. They train you, the expect you to produce more work/ money for them. If you are no longer a profitable part of the team, you're out. Maybe not even fired, but lay offs are a nice way to put it. Lay offs simply mean they value their own interests over yours. Can you blame them? Aren't we all inherently selfish? Most humans are. Might chalk that up to Darwin for that explanation- the humans who ran away from the tiger and tripped the other human lived. The human who went back to save someone got eaten too.

Then there's the whole issue of drugs on top of that. It's their choice to actively go out and buy drugs, usually. I feel bad for the HS students who get hooked because some dickhead dealer was giving out free samples. But that's another topic all together. Then you ask the question, "Why would anyone ingest something so horrible for them?" If anyone says, "Malta drugs aren't bad. We need to legalize them." Go see someone on meth who put their baby in a microwave to shut it up. Then look at me and say that. Ever see someone come off of drugs? It makes the Exorcist look like Teletubbies.

So back to the question at hand. They're miserable. They're unhappy. Unhappiness is the baseline in America. Why? Well it costs a whole lot to live here and there's a lot of social expectations to work. Hate work? Everyone does. Suck it up and do it. Why? Well I don't have an answer for that myself. No clue. They escape with drugs. Consequences? OD and die? Is that much worse than unemployed living in poverty? Who is to say?

It's a messed up situation man. It gets darker and darker. Personally, I think there should be incentives for companies to continue operations. I know it's unpopular for taxpayers to foot the bill. We're footing it anyone with our incarceration of these people. You're paying the same amount of them staying in a Ritz Carlton when you include all the costs (including the corrections officers). Why are we okay with paying for them in prison but not okay with paying for them to maintain a job? Another topic for another day.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 
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ironman32:
I watched a documentary on HBO recently from 2017 called "Meth Storm" about the police and people addicted to meth in Arkansas, It hit on a lot of points with meth, but they also mentioned how Wal-Mart came in and forced a lot of local stores to close, taking jobs.

Made me think, do you think corporation America contributed in some way to a lot of stuff going on with meth with opioids? Looking for people's opinion on the matter.

Yes. It's the evil corporate conspirators whom are responsible for the drug abuse of the youth. This has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read on the internet.

 

I think I need to re-express it.

I'm not blaming corporate America for anything; they never made anyone pick up drugs or develop a habit. People are free to make their own choices, and if they make a bad one its on them.

What I'm saying is, most people aren't leaders, don't make good decisions, and basically need to be looked after. For example, everyone in this documentary complained about no jobs, but they could always move.

What I'm asking is if corporations have any responsibility for the community or should be strictly based on making profit?

 
ironman32:
I think I need to re-express it.

I'm not blaming corporate America for anything; they never made anyone pick up drugs or develop a habit. People are free to make their own choices, and if they make a bad one its on them.

What I'm saying is, most people aren't leaders, don't make good decisions, and basically need to be looked after. For example, everyone in this documentary complained about no jobs, but they could always move.

What I'm asking is if corporations have any responsibility for the community or should be strictly based on making profit?

Do corporations have a duty? That is your question and it is a good one. On one hand you have Milton Friedman saying no. On the other hand you have Charles Handy saying yes.

I'd suggest you play on google for some articles and debates among the two.

 
ironman32:
What I'm saying is, most people aren't leaders, don't make good decisions, and basically need to be looked after.

That doesn't automatically mean the next step is meth.

Good lord.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 
ironman32:
What I'm saying is, most people . . don't make good decisions, and basically need to be looked after.

Maybe true, but this is a self-perpetuating cycle. First assume everyone can't take care of themselves. Since they can't take care of themselves, you then build a society that doesn't promote independence. The result of that is of course that people won't demonstrate the ability to behave independently. Which will just make the case even stronger for less independence, and the cycle continues. Pretty soon you end up with crazy ideas like blaming business success for meth.

 
m_1:
The real problem is the way drug addicts are treated in the United States. Drug addicts are need help with a mental health issue (addiction), they should NOT be lumped in with criminals and sent to prisons where they go from being drug addicts to drug addicts with a bachelors in theft.

Completely inefficient and costs taxpayers $$$.

I agree. The problem is the addict has to want to help themselves.

Example; a friend I went to grad school was grinding for a PhD in statistics. Prior to grad school, he was an undercover narc (deep under; like he showed me pictures of him with long hair, tie dyed shirts, and crazy piercings/prison tatts).

He said many users were true addicts as in they knew drugs were harmful, they knew it would not be good for them, but due to the addiction; they craved the substance anyway. He said many would hit rock bottom before deciding to flip as a confidential informant (CI). One guy credited this officer as saving his life and even had him stand up in his wedding. He went on to say that while the street dealers were addicts; many of the wholesalers were sophisticated deal-makers who did not use. They treated the drug trade as a professional commodity moving business. Not to get into politics, but many of the drugs are created outside of the US (SE Asia/Mexico in particular) and moved across the boarder in some way. The efficiencies, even when accounting for seizures, allowed all parties a profitable cut along the way. He drew me a crazy flowchart outlining common paths they tracked the products.

Why was he in grad school you ask? He was tired of his work making ZERO difference. For example, he showed me a newspaper article where due to a tip from a CI, a truck carrying cocaine worth millions was seized. He thought they captured key team members in charge of the supply chain for this respective area (medium size Midwest town). So he texts a few of his 'pals' to score some coke thinking they'd be dry. Nope. The seizure did absolutely nothing to the supply of cocaine. The benefit to society was null and the cost of his work could have been his life.

So he took the GRE, enrolled in a masters program, and was gunning for a PhD in statistics to work at the FBI/CIA or the like pushing paper at a desk while maintaining his pension. I should reach out to him to see how he's doing as it's been a few years since we've spoke.

 

Lately I've been thinking humans are pretty irresponsible with free will. Do you think it would be beneficial for people to have a device across the top of their cerebral cortex that blurs the short term memory when it detects thought patters (based on brain activity) indicative of committing a really bad crime? Probably won't stop drugs because people can honestly see it like a business. Probably not shoplifting or the like. But like murder. I would be interested to see if parts of your brain light up when you feel that much rage (barring sociopaths/ psychopaths). Then the device could send pulses that make you forget why you're that mad. And you go about your day.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

I am so glad I was raised by a normal family. Imagine going out of your way to smoke meth bc you lost your job....

ironman32:
Made me think, do you think corporation America contributed in some way to a lot of stuff going on with meth with opioids? Looking for people's opinion on the matter.

Don't really understand what you're asking but Sackler family is largely responsible for the opioid addiction in the United States not Best Buy lmao

 
thebrofessor:
Skyywalker:
Meth is a tied for top three worst drugs alongside Xanax, and weed

please, walk me through your logic of how weed can be lumped in with meth and SSRIs like xan

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

 

Skyywalker is some college kid who is very, very conservative and sees weed = bath salts while tripping on LSD and slamming black tar heroin and maybe a lil PCP thrown in for funsies

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

The only correlation between Walmart and becoming a meth addict is that Walmart probably has all the supplies necessary to make the stuff (at a discount price)

One fact that gets forgotten in the whole anti-walmart tirade was that those small businesses they ran out of town weren't exactly paying superior wages. In many cases those small business owners were also shopping at Walmart leading to their own demise.

When it comes to addiction, the addict only has themselves to blame. It's not like the Walton family is out there forcing people to smoke it. It's a lot more convenient for individuals to blame someone else than themselves. If they had any shred of responsibility they wouldn't be doing the drug in the first place.

 

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