I keep reading about how if Europe increases military spending they’ll have to cut welfare spending.
Let’s look at a little history: back around 1960 West Germany spent 4% of GDP on their military. They were happy to do so. They also had a very generous welfare state. So did most of Western Europe and they were spending a lot on their militaries.
“But Ian,” you exclaim, “that’s not possible. If you have a warfare state, you can’t have a welfare state!”
Here’s the rule. Pick any two of the following three:
- A Welfare State.
- A Warfare State.
- Low Taxes on the rich and corporations.
All it takes to have both a warfare and welfare state is 90% top marginal tax rates and various other taxes and laws designed to force corporations and the rich to invest in actual production and not in rentierism. Strangely, when Europe and the US had those tax rates, they had the best economies in their entire history.
Wonder why none of the pundits suggest going back to the successful warfare/welfare policies of the 50s and 60s?
I guess it’s a mystery.
(Oh, and why did Europe pay less than 2% of GDP on its military in recent decades? Might it have something to do with the fact that the USSR collapsed and there was no actual military threat to Europe?)
miss jennings
I think the term ‘warfare’ turns a lot of us off even given the fact that we know that this is the state of the modern world.
That said, I’d obviously go back to the ‘way things were’ in a heartbeat. Ninety percent tax rate on the wealthy and heavy regulation.
And remember if we do get back there: Keep pushing! Watch for Powell memorandums.
Beware the economic libertarians! They are against ‘warfare’ – allegedly. So they may seem like fellow ‘strange bedfellows’ but they aren’t.
Murray Rothbard was asked about unions in light of the fact that libertarian theory is allegedly all about feedom. Rothbard responded that of course you can form unions so long as they are people freely associating with each other.
But you’d be hard-pressed to find too many ‘Austrian theory’ guys who really care about unions. Rothbard himself ‘hung’ with an entirely different crowd.
And keep the hardcore Marxist stuff to a minimum. It doesn’t play well here.
Feral Finster
West Germany in 1960 had a much younger population. Germany today is a museum and old folks’ home.
West Germany in 1960 still had lots of development opportunities for reconstruction; i.e. low-hanging fruit.
West Germany in 1960 had generous direct and indirect subsidies from the United States, which was very concerned that europe might vote in communists if they offered the workforce a better deal.
West Germany in 1960 did not overyl worry about the environment, and did not face competition from China.
I could go on.
Feral Finster
I should have added that, in 1960, capital was not nearly as mobile as it is today.
If rich people with investments in Germany think they can get a better deal elsewhere, they can and will `up sticks in a heartbeat.
And of coruse, any eu member that doesn’t spend 4% of GDP on wasteful warfare spending is at a competitive advantage, relative to those that do. So there are incentives to defectors.
Ian Welsh
Eh, the same sorts of numbers are true of most of the Western European states at the time. And yes, capital mobility matters, as I’ve written at length, repeatedly. Capital mobility is a CHOICE. You can change it.
The policy mix still works, you just have to be willing to do it. Might it be a bit harder? Sure. But we also have advantages they didn’t, like industrial robots, and soon humanoid robots capable of caring for seniors.
Everyone knows why things can’t be done, and most of those reasons are choices we’ve made and can change or constraints we can adapt to.
We just have to make a choice. The point is, we don’t, because we don’t want to do anything that might make the rich less rich, comparatively.
miss jennings
humanoid robots capable of caring for seniors
This is frightening Ian. Absolutely frightening.
Do you mean like a senior living alone? Or do you mean in a senior center where the humanoid robots are helping other human beings care for seniors?
Humanoid robots?
I know they’re here already but…
My god.
I firmly believe that any robotics should be non-humanoid and simply used to help human beings with tasks like in a warehouse.
Aren’t the incredible technical advances in robotics much more advantageous to the wealthy?
Ian Welsh
I’ve seen video of robots helping seniors. Here’s how it will work: Japan and China will use them and they will be good for seniors. In the West they will be an excuse for more defunding.
I’ve been helpless in a hospital bed. I once lay for over six hours with my own vomit all over me as I couldn’t move and there weren’t enough nurses and orderlies. So, if they can get a robot to the point of helping people who need help, I’m good with that.
But it is a choice, as all things are. We can use them to help those who need help the most, or we can use them to increase the power and wealth of the rich and powerful.
China recently deliberately crashed their housing market and is taking over building thru government. They build rest-places for delivery workers and force good treatment. They are shedding billionaires: the only major country where there are less billionaires than last year, or 4 years ago.
The CCP, for whatever reason, generally actually cares about the welfare of the Chinese. Perhaps some of that’s real belief, perhaps it’s that they see it as the best way to stay in power, perhaps it’s some of both.
Technologies do have their own, innate trajectories, but it’s not 100%: we have choices about how we use them.
miss jennings
’ve been helpless in a hospital bed. I once lay for over six hours with my own vomit all over me as I couldn’t move and there weren’t enough nurses and orderlies.
In Canada? Recently? My god.
So, if they can get a robot to the point of helping people who need help, I’m good with that.
Me too. I’m not crazy. I just can’t believe they’ve gotten rid of that much labor even in Canada.
Technologies do have their own, innate trajectories, but it’s not 100%: we have choices about how we use them.
But let’s be honest: ‘We’ don’t really get to make the choices in how they’re used.
My fear is that more and more people have less and less ‘life’ in the sense of ‘joie de vivre’ anymore. And I think the wholesale digitization and roboticization – which are moving along hand-in-hand – I think these things are stifling human beings’ ‘life energy’ for lack of a better descriptor. And I think it’s by design.
People are more wiling to entertain a robot future if they themselves have become like robots in many ways.
Anyway, I’m just glad you are here. If it takes a robot to keep Ian Welsh alive then dammit there will be robots.
Alan Sutton
Nice, simple summing up. Cannot disagree.
As for “ And keep the hardcore Marxist stuff to a minimum. It doesn’t play well here.”
I definitely disagree with that. The absence of any Marxist stuff is part of the reason we are where we are I think.
miss jennings
The CCP, for whatever reason, generally actually cares about the welfare of the Chinese. Perhaps some of that’s real belief, perhaps it’s that they see it as the best way to stay in power, perhaps it’s some of both.
This spurred a thought: There have been massive protests against the genocide and in support of Palestine all over Europe in major cities and beyond, same in ‘MENA’ – Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey all come immediately to mind, as well as protests in the US and Canada.
I saw a protest in Japan quite recently.
Have there been any protests in China? I’ve seen no videos. I don’t think I’ve seen any out of Russia or India either. A quick search didn’t yield anything.
joey_n
After Trump’s reelection, I’ve seen people in the comment sections of RT and otherwise pro-Russian Anglophone YouTube channels accuse Europe of sponging off of American defense, a narrative you’d normally see in places like the Daily Caller. Until that point in time, I thought that narrative was Russophobic, neoconservative and/or American Exceptionalist claptrap and held that it’s the Europeans who pay the US and not the other way around. Reading about NATO’s misdeeds on Consortium News and the USA’s bloated defense budget on The American Conservative was enough for this hitherto Trump sympathizer to stop seeing the USA as a victim of European ‘parasitism’ in 2018.
How does one reconcile the accusation of Europe freeloading on American/NATO defense with a generally pro-Russian perspective that normally opposes NATO? If it’s not plain Trump-worship, what am I not seeing that makes parts of the RT readership think that the two are compatible?
Ian Welsh
Night shift in a second tier hospital, 1993. There were three nurses for about 40 patients, iirc. Can’t remember if they had an orderly on night shift. (The orderlies were the best, never met an orderly I didn’t like. Nurses and doctors are hit and miss. A lot of burnouts who have forgotten why they gotten into it in the first place.)
I was there 3 months. I have a lot of horror stories. I’ve had a shitty life, mostly, but those 3 months were the worst of it all. When I left I swore I’d never let that happen again, and I meant it.
These things seem to vary by tier. I was in a 1st tier hospital for surgery and some recovery in 2019 and it was much better staffed, but I understand staffing has become much worse since Covid. Certainly wait times for almost everything, and everywhere are massively up. I wouldn’t go to an emergency department right now unless I was truly in agony or thought I’d die otherwise. Average wait times of 12 hours are not uncommon. Previous to Covid I’d expect to see a doctor in an hour, 90 minutes at most.
One thing better in 1993 is that the whole opiod hysteria hadn’t peaked (though it had started.) They gave adequate pain relief. I had to fight for it in 2019 and when I left the hospital they gave me a scrip for pain killers which was equal to 2 days of what I’d been getting in hospital. Took me a month before I wasn’t in constant pain. In 93 I was given a huge subscription and was able to titrate myself off without any fear. Took me about 3 months to get entirely off,for about a month I was taking just one pill a day to help me sleep but I can’t imagine how horrible it would have been without opiates.
I sometimes wonder if most people have ever experienced real pain, or real degradation. It might explain a lot of the heartlessness. Although a fair number seem to be in the “I suffered, so it’s time for you to scream” camp, which is even more loathsome.
mago
Real pain or real degradation amongst the relatively well off ? Probably not.
When I say relatively well off I’m speaking of white westerners who live in comfort compared to say, the rest of the world. The human world. The animal world.
Anyone here ever gone hungry, not by missing a meal or two, but for days, un voluntarily? It hurts big time.
I’ve not experienced Ian’s bed ridden situation, yet I can relate in other ways to being helpless and at at the mercy of forces beyond my control.
I don’t wish it upon anyone human or nonhuman, what I do wish for is empathy and understanding for the plight of others in a world accelerating further into darkness and cruelty.
If you think that’s an overly dramatic assessment, take an honest look around.
mago
And oh, yeah, hey, it’s the equinox, the first day of spring. Time for celebration and procreation, lest we forget the light.
Ian Welsh
Not quite completely without food. But I remember when food was “water, oxo cube, flour, heat for a while, eat.”
FC
There still is no actual military threat to Europe, other than what Europe creates through its belligerent stance towards Russia. Well, that and a potential takeover of Greenland by the U.S.
miss jennings
Alan Sutton,
I adjectified ‘Marxist stuff’ with ‘hardcore’ intentionally. You wrote ‘the absence of any.’ There is a whole wide area to work with between the two. I did not mean to denigrate.
By the way, did you see what I just posted in the other thread?!:
https://www.criticalmethods.org/hook.html
That is a nice work of deconstruction.
miss jennings
I sometimes wonder if most people have ever experienced real pain, or real degradation. It might explain a lot of the heartlessness. Although a fair number seem to be in the “I suffered, so it’s time for you to scream” camp, which is even more loathsome.
This prompted so much in me that I really don’t know where to begin. I just want to say immediately in response to this last part that I think most of us have defenses to suffering to one degree or another, and they manifest in wlldly different ways.
Most people seem to have experienced varying degrees of familial ‘abuse.’ And I put ‘abuse’ in quotes not because their isn’t abuse but because there are varying degrees so that one person’s abuse may pale in comparison to someone else’s such that referring to it as abuse is insulting to that other person.*
There is physical and mental anguish. Most physical also has mental accompanying it. Mental has physical accompanying it.
Indifference as a defense against having to see or feel. Why?
The person practicing the indifference ‘knows’ on some unconsciousl/primordial level that empathizing will get them in touch with things they’d rather not confront.
Wanting someone else to hurt because you hurt is loathsome.
To default to psychological language (hi shaggz) we use all manner of ‘intellectual’ defenses that can be nasty depending on degree and also sensitivty of receiving party.
Sometimes our own moods may affect things. A gentle ribbing by a close acquaintance, friend or relative, may be received well one day but on another ‘I’m not in the mood today’ or ‘right now.’
Obviously unprovoked physical violence is sick.
Sometimess mental defenses implemented by one party may lead to physical responses – physical violence – by another. This should never happen but unfortunately it does.
I think everyone has felt like ‘kicking the person’s ass’ at times – or often! – but most of us don’t. But both the thought and the feeling are there.
I wonder if my life would’ve been different if I’d really punched back against the few bullies I encountered when younger.
Sorry Ian. I did it again. Kinda off-topic and away from your story.
*It’s why I never looked at my own inane decisions with drugs as a disease. I couldn’t look a cancer patient in the eye and say, ‘Oh yeah, I have a disease too, it’s alcoholism or addiction!’ Shows like Family Guy and South Park have mocked this too but anyone who has dealt with any sort of addiction knows that there is more to it.
I believe there is ample plain evidence that these things are much more environmental than genetic.
That is why I believe that in many ways we are on the wrong path.
There is a lot more to the drug/mental health thing but it’s too wide a subject.
——
Are we all just passing the buck?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtJlqpRH30I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W81oDqHU5iU
https://youtu.be/IsqmhrxYFAw?t=3010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBHN7aJGogY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9OkQ-3sjVE
—–
Civilization and its Malcontents. Quantifying and exactitude breed madness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdqwbs8uKwQ
miss jennings
Sorry for the ‘fag baby’ reference in the Norm MacDonald clip. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. For labelists I’m ‘bi’ myself but much more ‘hetero’ (I hate these fucking identifiers).
In Britain a cigarette is a fag such that one can ‘bum a fag.’ Or smoke a fag for that matter.
miss jennings
When I say relatively well off I’m speaking of white westerners who live in comfort compared to say, the rest of the world.
This isn’t true at all. I’ve recently watched videos of both russians and iranians wandering around in modern malls staring at phones just like ‘westerners.’
I’m a ‘white’ dude. Ian is a white westerner who’s telling us his life has been miserable.
A person is born into what they are born into. There are so many strata of ‘middle class’ in the US (though that is rapidly changing) and poor and lower and middle class ‘white’ (and all other) americans.
You can’t on the one hand say how ignorant americans are and talk about the media shitshow landscape that most are ensconced in and then turn around and blame ‘whitey’ for all the world’s historical ills.
Much of the rest of the world – from the videos I’ve seen – look like a bunch of mindless modern consumers at the end of the day as well.
The ‘caucasian’ europeans are the only group down through history ever to imperialize?
Into this house we’re born
unto this world we’re thrown
like a dog without a bone
riders on the storm
——
‘White’ and ‘black’ and ‘brown’ are ridiculous identifiers that we may want to do away with. Shall we talk about ‘the yellows’ as well? These are broad completely unnuanced categorizations that are minimalizing and easily set against each other.
Am I defending myself as a ‘white’ person?!
——-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JFXwqg3J4E
miss jennings
One thing better in 1993 is that the whole opiod hysteria hadn’t peaked (though it had started.) They gave adequate pain relief.
No, that didn’t peak until much later, at least here in the US. I was in Florida in the late 90’s/early 2000’s and oxycontin was big then. Seemed to peak mid 2000s then they started clamping down on it – to the other extreme, such that people like you couldn’t get it in adequate supply. But again this is US.
Anyone here ever gone hungry, not by missing a meal or two, but for days, un voluntarily?
I have not. Do you care to elaborate?
Purple Library Guy
I personally have had a pretty easy life; probably the most pain I have ever felt was a year or two back when I had surgery to take out a couple inches of my intestine. The immediate aftermath of the surgery wasn’t too bad, I was down to tylenol in a couple days. But then my intestines explained to me that they were unhappy about the whole “processing food through the sewn together part” thing and I went back to the hospital for a couple more days. Whoa, now that hurt a whole hell of a lot. But still, as “worst pain episode of a life” goes, pretty minor really. And I’ve never gone hungry, never been really poor . . . a bit touch and go paying the bills when I was first married, and we had both our new baby and my wife’s three previous daughters to take care of; things were tight, but we had decent lower middle class jobs and we were able to be careful about debt, and we could see that as our youngest grew out of child care and such we would be OK. Not really an experience of poverty.
And on top of that I’m not all that empathetic a person. Somewhat, sure, but I know that my mum and my wife are both more empathetic than I am, as are lots of people. Despite this I am a strong egalitarian. I think you don’t HAVE to have personal experiences of poverty and privation to realize it shouldn’t be happening to other people. A sense of justice and an imagination that hasn’t failed ought to be sufficient.
Maybe it helps that I play tabletop roleplaying games? I have spent a lot of time vicariously experiencing life in different situations, so I’m not stumped at the idea that other people are having different (and in many cases far worse) experiences than mine.
bruce wilder
I do not see how, as a matter of policy-making, it is possible to make elites care about the societies they lead and dominate.
“Choose any two” is misdirection unless it is acknowledged that not all of us are choosers.
When the top marginal rates were 90%, the elites being taxed at those rates accepted the burden as a means to ends they themselves valued greatly.
Maybe . . . and this is a stretch . . . in our nominal representative democracies we ordinary people have a “role” in choosing our representatives amongst the elites. “Role” isn’t power. Or, good taste.
“The fish rots from the head,” they say. Neoliberalism has created a deeply, thoroughly corrupt political economy. An abstract illusion of choice is meaningless if the duly constituted choosers are choosing for corrupted reasons of their own to be embrace a future in which the useless eaters are displaced by violence directed by artificial intelligence and executed on autopilot by drones and robots.
Oakchair
when Europe and the US had those tax rates, they had the best economies in their entire history.
Might it have something to do with the fact that the USSR collapsed
—————-
After ww2 the governments of western Europe were almost exclusively formed by parties on the right. Likewise, communist/far left parties were regularly winning around 20%-30% of the vote though almost never entered government.
A party doesn’t need to form a government to enact policies changes. All it needs is to have a credibly chance of doing so. This is why Germany is enacting anti-migrant policies despite the AfD being fenced off from government.
The fall and collapse of the USSR was a disaster for the west because it killed any credible alternative. No longer did the ruling capitalist class have to compete for the good will of the populace. No longer did the center or right parties have to fear far left parties winning an election.
Perhaps the biggest hope for the west is China accomplishing something so monumental that even the managing class has to admit China is ahead. Similar to how the USSR went from a backwards undeveloped state to a world superpower sending the first satelight and man into space.
Oakchair
And keep the hardcore Marxist stuff to a minimum. It doesn’t play well here.
——–
“Marxist” stuff doesn’t play well if terms and wording that signal it’s “Marxist” are used.
Otherwise most “marxist” concepts are agreeable to the populace.
@ joey_n
Severing America from the EU would make the EU less of a threat to it’s neighbors. Similar to how if the US stopped funding Israel, Israel wouldn’t be able to bomb all it’s neighbors.
A major reason Europe has been engaging in such war mongering behavior is because America shares in the accountability, blame, expenses and dictates policy.
If America was out of the equation would Europe —who would have to pay for it, and be held responsible— have destroyed Libya, Syria, Iraq, and couped the 2014 Ukraine government?
Feral Finster
If you think that europe has the political will or ability to institute capital controls, and can do so quickly enough to lock the capital down before it up and flees….
Care for the elderly is not the only problem with european demographics. Maybe you can have android soldiers as well.
miss jennings
Getting back to Ian’s original post, specific to Canada, there is this tiny little issue thta will need to be rectified:
‘Remember that every missile that we [Canadian military-intel ‘deep state’] own and fire on the CF-18s and all our frigates, all our offensive weapons are American and necessarily the United States government has control over what’s loaded into the latest version.
Canada’s military is desperate to avoid this discussion. According to retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, “senior officers are likely terrified by the perceived abandonment of their USAF [United States Air Force] relationships” that’s been caused by questioning the F-35 purchase.
The RCAF leadership is facing a “crisis of identity”, adds Norman, since they have “a cultural bias towards the USAF”.
About 10 per cent of Canadians say they support US annexation. It’s likely multiple times greater in the military, particularly among its largely US-trained leadership.
Which raises an important question. Is Canada’s military leadership so integrated with the US military that it should be considered a fifth column? (Any student of US foreign policy knows US-trained military officers have been involved in dozens of Washington friendly coups.)
While it may be unfair to question the loyalty of Canada’s military leadership, what we do know for certain is that the depth of the Canada-US military alliance is such that if US forces attacked this country it would be extremely difficult for the Canadian Forces to defend this country.
In fact, given its entanglements with their southern counterparts the Canadian Forces would likely enable a US invasion. As with the 2003 invasion of Iraq — which Ottawa officially opposed — some Canadian troops on exchange in the US might march north and, as is the norm when the US invades another country, Canadian officers would likely operate NORAD systems aiding the aggression.
Another certainty is that the USA is the only nation that could realistically invade Canada. But the “defence” sector ignores US threats because it is not oriented towards protecting Canada from aggression.
Rather, Canada’s “defence” community is aligned with the US Empire’s quest for global domination. From naval patrols to special forces deployments, research initiatives to wars, the Canadian Forces function largely as an appendage of their southern neighbour’s enormous killing machine.’
https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-politics/canadian-military-suffers-identity-crisis-over-trump-threats/
ella
The CCP, for whatever reason, generally actually cares about the welfare of the Chinese. Perhaps some of that’s real belief, perhaps it’s that they see it as the best way to stay in power, perhaps it’s some of both.
A Chinese blogger I follow has said something similar. The Chinese people will put up with a lot of bullshit from their government but they will not tolerate hunger among the people. According to her the central government knows that that is the most powerful catalyst for a mass revolt, so they are incentivized to at least make sure the people are fed.
miss jennings
I think this article is appropriate to this thread.
Parents vow to fight ‘heartless’ plan to shutter 3 N.J. schools, including top-ranked elementary
So, this is not a poor or ‘average’ middle class area. This leans more towards ‘upper’ middle class, though as I stated in another comment there remain many varying and overlapping classes within the ridiculously broad category of ‘middle class’ such that ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ middle classes doesn’t begin to really define peoples’ own experience of life to any serious degree.
I also said in that comment that this has been changing even before the Trump insanity. Now it’s on overdrive.
https://archive.ph/GTRnf
miss jennings
Ian is a white westerner who’s telling us his life has been miserable.
But our host also told us about crossing the finish line and being in love.
——-
mago, I don’t know if you care for those docu things like the george brett piece I linked to. I generally avoid them but that one was relevant to the points i was making plus it had personal appeal to me because i started watching baseball around that time. that’s my childhood, for better or for worse. it’s a part of me. anyhoo, if you or anyone does watch it: talk about a pasty lilly white family! don’t tell brett though or he’ll punch you in the mouth. his whiteness didn’t seem to bother reggie jackson. same class?
much to comment on the jenny agutter film as well which yes, is ‘orientalist’ but has some really profound elements as well.
miss jennings
I’m sorry everyone, last one. From the article i (my left shift key is broken) posted about schools closing:
‘Deputy Chief Paul Bailey, a spokesperson for the Middletown Township Police Department, confirmed that officers had been present at the meeting. No arrests were made, he said
At least one officer was onsite about 45 minutes before the meeting began, according to people present. Several other units later responded to the scene, though officers did not clash with the parents at any point, and interactions remained civil.’
The police aren’t federalized here. Yet. They are still local. The local police need to ‘turn their guns’ on the administrative-govt hierarchy. Stand with the people.
This can obviously lead to utter disaster quickly without planning and coordination among local and county/regional departments. You have to make sure you have enough trusted allies both as far up and as far wide as possible so that when the larger more powerful guys are sent you have allies in all of the strata – the swat is sent but they get there and ‘lay down their arms’ but don’t really lay down arms rather switch sides. This is why they’re dividing everything and creating a ‘cultural revolution’ that goes hand-in-hand with the economic pillaging. It is very hard to look a loved one in the eye and shoot them because they’re trying to save the school your kid goes to or your fellow police officer and friend’s kid goes to.
https://archive.ph/GTRnf
miss jennings
The Proud Boys are an op. Their coordinator is an informant for the feds who has ‘helped’ the feds with drugs/gambling and human trafficking.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/27/proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-fbi-informant
https://ryandbusse.substack.com/p/midterms-or-shock-troops-in-2026
different clue
The Proud Boys was first founded by right wing Canadian Gavin McInnes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_McInnes
mago
Just to clarify, when I say whitey I’m referring to a mentality, not skin color. I wear a pale epidermis. The AIM people talked about apples—red on the outside, red on the inside. The Chinese refer to ABCs, or American Born Chinese; of course you have your Uncle Toms. I’m certain there are more than I could think of.
Besides, I’m painting broad brushstrokes and it’s easy to pick apart my statements. I don’t take myself too seriously most of the time, and am generally not making nuanced comments in this format.
I am serious about the effects of nihilism and its prevalence in Western cultures, particularly the US.
And the decline of empathy anywhere I see as a denial of our basic humanity and goodness.
If I had easy access to my computer, which doesn’t reside with me (long story), I’d check out your suggested docu link miss jennings. As it is I rely on my phone and catching an LTE connection. Thanks.
Oakchair
opiod hysteria hadn’t peaked (though it had started.) They gave adequate pain relief.
—–
Turns out in capitalism religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, opioids and drugs are the opiates of the masses.
Rather then fixing any of the problems and causes just throw some addicting drugs at everyone. What could go wrong?
The opioid hysteria was the medical industry sending them out like candy because “the science” said they were “non addicting, safe and effective”. When I was in high school everyone who had their wisdom teeth pulled received a bottle or two of opioids. Giving every teenager bottles of drugs. What was the point of DARE and all that say no to drugs shit?
One study found that “opioid use for more than 90 days, did not improve (pain) outcomes” In fact at 12 months opioid use resulted in “greater pain and disability”
https://www.unthsc.edu/newsroom/story/national-pain-research-registry-study-finds-long-term-opioid-therapy-ineffective/
A systemic review for dental pain found that opioids were less effective than ibuprofen and acetaminophen (results section and table 1)
https://jada.ada.org/pb/assets/raw/Health%20Advance/journals/adaj/07_ADAJ1063.pdf
In a randomized clinical trial opioids “did not result in significantly better pain-related function over 12 months”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2673971
A randomized placebo study found at 6 weeks a placebo was better than opioids for managing pain.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00404-X/abstract
I don’t doubt that for some people opioids in the short term can help with pain. But let’s be real.
mago
Always interesting Oakchair.
As one who experienced extreme dental trauma and received lotsa drugs I can say that Tylenol codeine did the trick, but after a couple of doses I dropped it and just dealt with it. Didn’t care for the later irritability nor the constipation. I still have some pills around somewhere.
Ibuprofen and acetaminophen did jack all to relieve pain from the “bone breaking “ illness called dengue. I tossed it and endured it.
Dengue is a trip into the hell realms. Just one of many ways to travel there with or without numbing agents.
Keep on rocking señor Oakchair.
miss jennings
I am sorry mago. I sometimes (often?) misinterpret things online and it gets me in trouble. I wondered later upon reflection if it was more in the sense you describe. I should have known that.
The video i linked to has an annoying scroll asking you to like the video that runs the entire video. But there’s probably cleaner versions available. Perhaps pirate bay.
miss jennings
different clue,
Interestig history on McInnes:
‘James McInnes, who later became the Vice-President of Operations at Gallium Visual Systems Inc. – a Canadian defence company.’
Gallium has since been bought by Kongsberg Geospatial which is a ‘Situational Awareness and Geospatial Visualization software company.’
I didn’t look any further up the food chain.
Looks like it’s sorta all-of-one.
mago
Jesus. Red on the outside, white on the inside is how the American Indian Movement described the turncoats who still manage reservations across the Indian nation.
Not that it matters, but I was born and raised next to a reservation and got to see close up the degradation and betrayal.
Wanna take a bite of my apple?
En