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Paul Buchheit reports via AlterNet
While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society".
This is one example of the distorted thinking leading to the demise of a once-vibrant American society. There are other signs of decay:
- A House Bill Would View Corporate Crimes as "Honest Mistakes"
- Almost 2/3 of American Families Couldn't Afford a Single Pill of a Life-Saving Drug
- Violent Crime Down; Prison Population Doubles
- One in Four Americans Suffer Mental Illness; Mental Health Facilities Cut by 90 Percent
- The Unpaid Taxes of 500 Companies Could Pay for a Job for Every Unemployed American ...for two years ...at the nation's median salary of $36,000 ...for all 8 million unemployed.
Citizens for Tax Justice reports that Fortune 500 companies are holding over $2 trillion in profits offshore to avoid taxes that would amount to over $600 billion. Our society desperately needs infrastructure repair, but 8 million potential jobs are being held hostage beyond our borders.
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(Score: 5, Funny) by Alfred on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:25PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:45PM
Yeah - but - what's it cost? I don't want just any old placebo! If the alcohol content is high enough, I'll consider it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheLink on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:06PM
According to scientific research the expensive placebos work better:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/health/research/05placebo.html [nytimes.com]
https://today.duke.edu/2008/03/placeboprice.html [duke.edu]
Follow up study with similar results:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-expensive-placebos-work-better-20150127-story.html [latimes.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tempest on Tuesday December 08 2015, @07:02PM
So only the rich can afford expensive placebos to treat their non existent mental illness? Damn you 1%. Damn you!
(Score: 1) by TobascoKid on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:53PM
I prefer a homeopathic remedy, where I add a small amount of sugar to water and it remembers the Placebo molecules. It certainly get me through the day.
Not that it makes any difference to the science behind it, but I tend to use hot water and add coffee granules for flavour.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:45PM
Actually, the medical ads that I'd love to see, but never will: "Ask your doctor if eating right and exercising is right for you!" Because both of those things have far greater effect than all the pharmaceuticals a lot of people are on.
That said, I agree that there's probably a lot of over-diagnosis going on. I doubt that it's a grand conspiracy involving pharmaceutical companies though, because there are plenty of other reasons for it:
1. We haven't figured out how to make best use of people who have certain behaviors. As an example, if I'm a hominid on the plains of Africa, I want to make damn sure that somebody in my group is easily distracted by little things around them - because they'll probably notice the lion hiding in the grass before anybody else does. That's now called "ADHD", but it's an evolved useful trait, and we would be wise as a society to find jobs for them where the primary skill is noticing subtle things like tiny cracks in dams or unusual behavior in front of security cameras.
2. Those with diagnosed mental illness have access to services and assistance that those without that diagnosis lack. So, for example, there's a strong incentive to be diagnosed with something prior to taking the SAT/ACT, because that diagnosis can give you extra time to take the test. This is appealing to parents who want their kids to use whatever resources they have at their disposal to get good grades.
3. We're better at diagnosing and treating mental illness than we used to be. Our name for people with many mental illnesses used to be "stupid", "moronic", "simpleton", "village idiot", and so forth. And most of the rest of them were simply termed "loonies" and locked up somewhere or simply left out in the woods to die.
And the strong evidence against the "pharma conspiracy" theory is that there are enough people working in mental health right now that if there were a big pharma conspiracy, you'd expect that a significant number of them would have squealed.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 08 2015, @06:05PM
1. The last thing you want is a person with ADHD acting as a lookout. We tend to get bored with a dull task and intensely focus on something else that piques our interest. It's why studying is almost impossible.
2. Depends on the needs. I used to get the extra time but in some cases they wanted to see a school record that listed you as learning disabled. That meant that your chances of getting into a decent uni were slim to none as it put a black mark on your transcript. I got a 1060 out of 1600 on the SAT and didn't study a single second. Meanwhile a straight A honor roll student only got an 800 even after intense preparation. We were both rejected from our uni of choice, his SAT score and my shit grades. My grades were in the toilet and a bunch of my report card averages were below 65, the minimum passing grade. Though for the most part I was able to maintain a 65-70 in my junior and senior years. Technical classes that interested me? Aced them and either never studied or studied a bit before a test for a hour or so, just to review and make sure I knew the formulas and steps. Boring classes? Flunked.
3. I was originally diagnosed with ADD around 1990. Though, I'm sure if I went back I would probably be re-diagnosed with ADHD and/or possibly another autism spectral disorder. My grades alone would prompt people to think I was some kind of idiot. Once they got to know me they asked how I could possibly be flunking. I never had an answer.
When I was 10, I was diagnosed and put on ritalin. Didn't really work for me and only made me lose my appetite which affected me more. Later that year I also tried dexedrine, an amphetamine like adderall. I have recently lightly experimented with adderall but stopped after one day as I immediatly knew I could develop an addiction. Once the high wore off I was anxious to get another hit. I tapered it off with half a dose and when that wore off, a big cup of coffee. Now I self medicate with caffeine via coffee though it's temporary and only really gets me through >50% of the day. I will be honest and say I am very weary of medication. The side effects and possible addition are what put me off.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Alfred on Tuesday December 08 2015, @09:31PM
The conspiracy doesn't go any further than "hey employees, get sales to go up, by what ever means, or you're fired!" Cross this with some loose morals, lacking consideration of human well-being, short sightedness and a big mortgage payment or debt and they are probably no worse than congressmen.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday December 08 2015, @09:59PM
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Wednesday December 09 2015, @10:51PM
But what are the common side effects of using Placebo? Are there any generic versions of it?
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