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Addiction Markets

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384 points toomuchtodo | 6 comments | 31 Oct 25 17:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.949s | source | bottom
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zkmon ◴[01 Nov 25 11:32 UTC] No.45780865[source]▶
What happened to America. Maybe 70's or 40's were it's peak. Every activity has become a betting. Investments, sports, relationships, home-buying.

Addictions are a symptom of having an excessive amount of free time, floating money and lack of fear of reprisal from family and society and lack of basic wisdom.

Excessive prosperity breaks social rythm. It removes dependencies and relations across individuals. It's like a tree turned into chips, with freedom for every chip. As individuals, you won (materialistic luxury etc), but as a family, community or country, you fail.

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MangoToupe ◴[01 Nov 25 13:41 UTC] No.45781567[source]▶
> Addictions are a symptom of having an excessive amount of free time, floating money and lack of fear of reprisal from family and society and lack of basic wisdom.

Sure, or any of the other million reasons people get addicted, like despair, or other healthier activities being too expensive. Super weird take.

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1. zkmon ◴[01 Nov 25 13:58 UTC] No.45781695[source]▶
Explain why there were hardly any addicts among peasant communities in rural third world countries back in the 70's or 80's.
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2. SamoyedFurFluff ◴[01 Nov 25 14:24 UTC] No.45781874[source]▶
What are you talking about, alcoholism is a classic rampant poverty addiction?
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3. hollerith ◴[01 Nov 25 14:25 UTC] No.45781882[source]▶
The assertion is that

>there were hardly any addicts among peasant communities in rural third world countries back in the 70's or 80's.

Are you sure the assertion is wrong?

How do you know?

"I grew up in a rural setting in the third world," would be a great answer.

4. MangoToupe ◴[01 Nov 25 15:23 UTC] No.45782378[source]▶
You don't think they had alcoholics? Why?
5. zkmon ◴[01 Nov 25 16:05 UTC] No.45782751[source]▶
From what I saw, there was no "alcohol" as you know it. Most peasant families consumed something called toddy that came from palm trees and date palms. It's a family drink and it's nowhere close to what you call as addiction.
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6. MangoToupe ◴[01 Nov 25 16:45 UTC] No.45783134{3}[source]▶
Palm wine addicts have existed since pre history. Or banana beer, or other forms of wine, etc. But distilleries existed virtually everywhere by the 70s.

But even putting that aside, gluttons, drunkards, and gamblers are certainly ancient and well attested, certainly in the western (abrahamic/hellenic) tradition. Perhaps there are some societies without this but it not poverty or want or lack of abundance that provides relief.