its a crime that we can allow fellow humans to be so desperate while some of us have untold wealth

[srican69]

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/societal-ills-spike-in-crisis-stricken-greece/?hp

60% unemployment among youth - with hunger leading them to sell their bodies for 5 euros ??? I don't think you can put that down to them being lazy and stupid - Someone screwed up big time and these poor folks have to pay the price.

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. I get you point; but ...

the point of the artice is that Shisha is leading people to sell your bodies, not unempoyment. Full empoyment has little effect on the employment rates of drug addicts.

[NaturalHigh]

3. That seems like some really bad stuff.

Their meth may be even worse than ours.

[HiPointDem]

6. no, just their unemployment rate. it sounds like garden-variety crack to me. It's cheap, so it's

a good product for the absolutely destitute.

[HiPointDem]

4. yeah, greece's 30% or so unemployment is just a coincidence. as is the 'emergence' of this

'new drug' during greece's worst economic crisis since the great depression.

"and for a cheap but dangerous new street drug that has emerged during Greece’s crisis"

Greece = the new South Central LA.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. You've missed my point ...

Do you think that addicts are addicts because they are unemployed ... in Greece or in South Central?

[HiPointDem]

11. Long-term unemployment = risk factor for drug & alcohol use, which is a risk factor for addiction.

Everywhere there is widespread long-term unemployment & destruction of social supports and institutions, drug and alcohol use increases and so does addiction. Not to mention that the 'drug economy' spreads, as the 'real economy' is increasingly absent.

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. Is that anecdotal or academic? n/t

[HiPointDem]

15. academic. review of the literature:

The current article summarizes the results of a comprehensive review of the international research published between 1990 and 2010....Over hundred-thirty relevant studies were identified investigating these issues. The main results are as follows:

(3) Unemployment is a significant risk factor for substance use and the subsequent development of substance use disorders. However, the current research provides only limited information about which individuals are more likely to be affected.

(4) Unemployment increases the risk of relapse after alcohol and drug addiction treatment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21466502


The literature, however, is mostly focused on 'normal' unemployment at the level of individuals (v. widespread, long-term unemployment, i.e. ghettoization of entire groups or populations).

I have little doubt that the latter increases the risk more, and one of the reasons i have little doubt is that i've seen it happen in my own community. both anecdotal & data on that one.

[1StrongBlackMan]

17. Okay ...

though I have not looked at the meta-study, I will accept the summary ... it seems intuitively correct.

[gopiscrap]

2. I fully agree and harken back to the biblical phrase

"It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"

[craigmatic]

5. There needs to be a world wide maximum wage with the extra money going to social programs.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Careful about maximum wages

We used to have them, they were effective ceilings that kept people poor, back in the 17th and 18th centuries.

What we need is what Adam Smith wrote about, living wages.

[craigmatic]

8. I meant maximum wages for the rich.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. I know, but I also know that history

[galileoreloaded]

9. what we need is less people. nt

[olddots]

14. I agree ----how many are too many ?

Industrial revolution and technical revolution have lead to less jobs and a planet it 7 billion people plus needs more than three billion jobs .

[galileoreloaded]

16. mother nature will take us back to pre-ag levels soon enough

its a shame we aren't smart enough to prevent the inevitable suffering

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. Eat the rich.