In 2008, Americans consumed enough Prescription Narcotics to insure that 301,000,000 American men, women, and children all could have received enough Narcotic pain killers to keep themselves in some form of euphoria for most of the year.
The reader may accuse me of Inventing the Data. I would send you to the DEA website to verify it yourself via their Office of Diversion Control official Narcotic Production Quota for 1998-2008. For the time being it is available online, however this may change as I continue to try to bring to the public eye toward the uncontrolled growth in narcotics prescribing and consumption relative to the total amount of pain in the American populace.
We may ask how the infamous "THEY" could allow this to happen.
Take it a step further, what if I told you that since 1998, the amount of prescription narcotics consumed in the U.S.A. was less than 33% on average that it is today? This forces the question. What has changed in our total pain levels and in our culture and pain thresholds that we now find ourselves requiring more than 3-fold greater an amount of opiates versus 1 decade prior?
When you are nested within the change and it takes place over time, it may be more difficult to perceive, but we and 1998 America do not have much in common any more. The personalities have changed. We have undergone 2 decades of inflated income first with a dot.com stock boom and later with bloated real estate and uncontrolled revolving credit issuance.
The raw data is available below and includes the DEA link to calculate for yourself. This is nice because it is pre-calculated into Dosage Units so that you can understand how absurd the figures are.
301,000,000 AMERICAN of ALL AGES if divided equally would have:
#50 - 5mg Oxycodone tablets &
#30 - 5mg Hydrocodone tablets
Now add in other narcotics which are utilized to an even greater extent and you certainly have enough for the opiate naive to guarantee a full year of euphoria without even engaging the Benzodiazapenes, Amphetamines, Methylphenidate, Methamphetamine, barbituates, and other psycotropic substances registered with the US FDA and distributed in America pursuant to physicians orders.
To clarify to the reader, the Narcotic use data is sufficient to make much of our argument, however in combination with the data for other psychotropics such as Xanax(TM), alprazolam in generic form, and Adderall (TM) (mixed amphetamine salts) and Ritalin (TM) (methylphenidate), Desoxyn (methamphetamine), and others, we build an even stronger case for reduced judgment capacity during the spending and fiscal planning process in the individual household.
Have you ever wondered why we spend so much money as Americans?
It is interesting to ask people whether in Thailand or Brazil who is the easiest sell and who is the big spender. They will rarely reply Italy or U.K. or Australia or New Zealand. They will reply Americans. The Americans of this past decade are accustomed to being irresponsible with their money and not negotiating. We are also accustomed to gaining face through overspending instead of saving face by negotiating such as many other cultures do. We have become culturally predisposed to overspending and thusly erasing our core savings rate.
It only takes a street salesman of T-Shirts to notice: "If I call foreigner from UK cheap. He not care. He want good price. I say CHEAP CHEAP to American. He not happy. He pay more money for SAME".
Hearing this from and independent 3rd party in broken english yields a bigger picture. We are trained not to negotiate under threat of being CHEAP and CHEAP is BAD. Frugality is demonized in modern American culture. This was not always the case. There was once pride in the same.
Where has this pride gone?
Who has gained the most from a culture that thinks that it is cool to waste money?
Our image in the world versus say the U.K. or Australia is a culture that spends without restraint, doesn't negotiate, and are a relatively easy sell. MTV and Copying our favorite Television stars and Musicians has made a culture all about every we "MUST HAVE". We have become overly pacified and overly reliant on government and our envisioned "SYSTEM".
What is the 10 year and 20 year picture of American habits, core savings, and medication changes.
1. Core Savings Has Disappeared. The premise of living within your means and clearing your mortgage has vanished and been replaced with buying that dress and car you always wanted to impress someone. What has happened to the concept of retiring on a free and clear title to one's home?
2. We were much more likely to buy what we did not need 2002-2006 versus 1991-1998. Why is that?
3. Anti-Depressants, Anti-Anxiety Medication, Narcotics, Amphetamines, and other psychotropic prescriptions have all exploded in quantity and dosage and breadth of population within this past decade.
4. Television, Advertising, Mass Media and observations of friends, family, and neighbors has led to a form of behavioral therapy wherein even those unmedicated have felt pressure from the culture to copy and align with the overspending patterns.
Are these events related or not ?
I do not think so. The Sheep Chronicles does not think so. I believe that if we bring enough data clearly out into the open that common sense will prevail and Americans will be able to perceive what may well have been happening.
Ask 10 people who you know take an SSRI anti-depressant or SNRI anti-depressant or who regularly use an anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax (Alprazolam) or Klonopin (Clonazapam). Ask them for impressions.
DO YOU SPEND MORE MONEY ON THIS MEDICATION?
When your anxiety levels are reduced and you are not sad, you feel more open to spending money in many cases. This is the same as a person who drinks alcohol in a bar, gets drunk, and then the next day says; WOW! How could I have spent so much money in that bar? It's easy when you anxiety centers are relaxed and you feel good.
Irrespective of the neurotransmitters in question, Serotonin, GABA, Dopamine, or others; chemically there is no doubt that medications, alcohol, tobacco, and other substances modify our chemically perceived reality and mood and thereby effect our behaviors. Now continue this equation with the massive use of prescription pain management (narcotics) in the United States and we have a continuation of the same effects. A person who is feeling a "chemical high" is a potent consumer. They do not control their excess or surplus of income by directing it into a boring savings account. They have reduced impulse control and they spend.
We are Sheeple but there is nothing new about that aspect of humanity.
We are passive. We use the word "THEY" much more than 20 years prior. We fancy ourselves more civilized but we may well be less so.
We accept many ANTI-CONSUMER behaviors with a sense that we cannot do anything about it.
We see a blatant election scandal in 2000 and no million man march. Just as with anything that angers us, it is brief and fleeting and then we return to a pacified existence. What triggers our anger anymore for more than 1 week?
We are VERY INSECURE as a people amongst ourselves more so than 20 years prior. We are more focused on the brand names of clothing and type of car. It used to be that the wealthy family had a Mercedez-Benz and others did not expect to own one. Now every family feels a heightened sense of competition and entitlement. There is a lack of contentment with traditional family roles and service jobs.
The pedestal for success has been placed so high by this spending culture that there is a lesser extent of happiness. I see greater levels of happiness in poor 3rd world villages enjoying life's simple pleasures than an upper class neighborhood over the holidays during a good year here. Happiness is chemical. Embracing life's simple pleasures has increasingly been eroded and replaced with pro-consumerism and competition. Have more than your neighbors. Spend more than your neighbors. This competition does not net happiness. The only one's who gain from this are corporations selling you those goods.
The very development of the Personal Car Lease helped to promote the concept of living beyond your economic means. You could afford the $35,000 car instead of a $20,000 car. When leases disappeared, many people were shocked to realize how little car they could really afford to buy. Some went through adjustments in terms of self-image as they were so locked into a perception of their social class via their car.
HUMBLE has left our personalities as though an ancient remnant of the past, and it leaves behind profound arrogance all about us. This arrogance is really rooted in INSECURITIES. I want to drive a better car. I want to have a bigger house. I want the best designer clothes. I am willing to give up my core savings for it. Being me is not good enough. I must earn more. I must climb higher. I am in competition with everyone and not with myself. I cannot just embrace life's simple pleasures. As an expat, I am shocked at the personality changes I can perceive 6 months in the U.S. and 6 months out. Where did the inner strength go? Why are people not able to perceive their insecurities and just put their foot down as say, I don't care what I drive as long as my family eats? Some people can but most cannot.
It's a horrible thing to say, but could this financial crisis help us long term to become better people?
WE HAVE A PERFECT STORM OF EVENTS
Our pharmaceutical manufacturers prerogative is to regurgitate old studies and bloat R&D numbers while raping and pillaging America under 10,000%+ markups in some cases. We have growing apathy in the medical community due to a society that lives for liability and fear of being sued. Insurance companies have really begun to own the practitioner's souls. American seem to have a lower threshold for pain than 10 years ago and greater willingness to seek out medication solutions to their lives. Socially we are playing follow the leader in a no limits game of overspending to satisfy some sense of ego fulfillment. All the while, Washington and Big Corporate leadership effectively operate without sufficient challenge from the inebriated and self-absorbed population.
Then comes the economic wake up call. The disclosure then comes fully open that it was all a false reality. Fear sets in. People look to what brings them more comfort and we have Q4 2008. Hydrocodone, a narcotic, met its manufacturing quote for America by the end of Q3 2008. Americans reached for chemical solutions to avoid perceiving the reality.
I would not buy a pizza parlor for 500 years of earnings, so why did I buy that stock? Logic prevails. What goes up will usually come down.
We are being played as a people. Played into Feeling INSECURE and thusly OVERSPENDING.
We are handed the TEMPORARY FINANCIAL MEANS to OVERSPEND.
Medications are Marketed and Prescribed en masse that help to REDUCE OUR ANXIETY LEVELS and PRODUCE EUPHORIA en masse to where we become almost hedonistic in all our pursuits. Apathy and concern for liability above all else flourish in the medical community by way of insurance carrier policies. Patient relationships with their practitioner's collapse. People seek Antidepressants and Sleep medications and pain killers seeking a way out of their realities just as a bottle of vodka at the bar.
This manner of "head in the sand" is exactly how we lost the confidence of the world this decade. Our people failed in their responsibility to keep their government in check. We as a people failed to stop corporate looting. We as a people failed to stand up for ourselves and take back the fundamentals and rejecting blatant consumerism for the sake of consumerism In a way, the inmates of government and corporate were left to run the asylum while a pacified people stubbled around not realizing their altered mental state whether through their sheepdom (CBT) or via chemicals.
WHO MAKES OUT?
Those on the other side of the coin. Corporate giants who market to you all these things that you do not need but you have convinced yourself that you do, they have made their money. You have leveraged your house and ability to retire upon a nicer car, longer vacation, eating out too much, and a giant television. You were happy all the while or so you thought.
Financial Giants have convinced you to forfeit your core savings and future right to retire against your SHORT TERM HEDONISM. You have in a sense: MORTGAGED YOUR OWN FUTURE and your childrens' futures. As for governments, you are less likely to openly question their actions in a problematic manner for them. You might send an email, but you do not MARCH anymore. PROTESTS are lesser. You are PACIFIED. This is not just NARCOTIC PACIFICATION it is a full spectrum of chemicals and events working collectively.
1. Prescription
2. Illicit
3. Over the Counter and Alcohol and Tobacco
4. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy : TELEVISION & COPYING YOUR NEIGHBOR
All these collectively play a role in bringing about a CIVILIZATION OF A ONCE GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE who essentially cannot make their own independent decisions. They have let themselves be played into 50+ YEARS of debt and working full time until the day they die. They have collapsed the dreams of so many into a massive debt onto their children and their children's children. They have poisoned a once great culture in a sense.
The #1 Commonality is GREED.
Our GREED was exploited. We were played because our ego was susceptible to programming to where Greed represented the mechanism for fulfillment of that which would satisfy our ego. We also are one of the most insecure cultures on the planet which is completely and utterly in denial about such insecurity. Most Americans can easily be played by stroking their egos. That was how you sold a car for a long time. You sell the bigger TV set that way. Are you sure you can afford that? Yes I Can. "No, we can find you something more affordable". (The Take Away) "No really I want it. I can handle it" (Customer)
THOUGHTS SUCH AS THESE:
"The neighbor has one. Why shouldn't I."
"Everyone else bought a house. Why shouldn't I have one too."
"Everyone has massive credit card debt. So its no big deal if I have it too"
"They all went on vacation. Why shouldn't I."
Meanwhile, someone who lived through the Great Depression or childhood hardship in another country or culture held onto their dimes and nickels. Some people did extremely well throughout this process. Some did not change their core values and shopped at second hand stores and kept a car for 10 years while their house went up 300%. Some thwarted those social games of who will pay. Some sold their house when it gained in value and bought a lesser house to lock in the profit. Some had retained fear of hitting bottom from other experiences and were not able to be programmed. Unfortunately, most Americans were played.
We need to stand up for ourselves. We cannot let false pride stop us from economic success. We have to become a humble and realistic people and take back our souls as presently they have liens on them.
PEOPLE NEED TO STOP BEING SHEEPLE and LEARN TO BE INDEPENDENT THINKERS AGAIN.
Think up something new every day. Sourced in nothing known to you.
Act on it the something new.
Do something that makes you feel embarassed or lesser. Embrace this flexibility.
Eat your dose of humble pie every day and change the culture on person at a time.
WE HAVE BEEN PLAYED AND THE GAME IS FINISHED FOR NOW.
Its time to try to take the playing field back for ourselves for next time.
DON'T EVER CONFUSE CHEAP AND FRUGAL.
THINK ON YOUR OWN.
NEVER USE THE INFAMOUS "THEY".
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