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Could we use meds for economic growth?
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For one, burnout. People who no longer feel the drive to work could take stimulants (think synthetic phenethylamines), which would boost productivity, engagement, and the subjective experience of work.
Secondly, inflexibility in thinking. This could be combated using an SSRI of some sort, which increases social skills in general, strengthening feelings of peace, understanding, and connection. This may also improve quality-of-life.
Additionally, propranolol, a common blood pressure reducer while it us actually a depressant, has the capacity to improve brain function drastically for overstimulated individuals, and I use it to help with the anxiety shock that stimulants can give me. Actually, my best, most realistic drawings are drawn after I've taken some to calm down for the night, because it has a few special features: Improved dexterity, heightened fluid/adaptive intelligence, increased patience, and decreased anxiety response (which can inhibit learning or thinking).
Both SSRIs and Stimulants together, as noted by myself, increase ability to feel awake, dedicated. They increase personal feelings of importance, confidence, along with actually improving my work ability thanks to the fact that I can fully immerse myself in my surroundings. Interestingly, after taking both, I have the ability to sing along to music, even rap, even sometimes saying the words just as fast or faster than the radio, not something I would be able to do without meds, and evidence that you are not born with the talent you have. You become it.
These are just some applications of only medication that I currently take, and thus can describe, but there are others. Many others with much potential.
Additionally, innovation for brain scanning has grown during the recent years. Thanks to how innovation grows according the the amount of attention put into it, and how economies of scale work, it would be feasible to have a state-paid initiative (provided the incentives work) to have a significant portion of the workforce get brain scans which would reveal any underlying deficiencies in mental ability that could be remedied with medication, neurofeedback, or any other method that is invented in the future. Also, something of that scale would vastly increase the amount of raw data that could be used to further improve the field.
Such an initiative would pay for itself economically, likely hundreds of times over, thanks to the benefit gained. Additionally, it may detect previously undetected brain disorders in individuals who never got tested previously, and thus improve their lives dramatically, and reducing the amount of undetected cognitive dysfunction.
The question is, could such a multifaceted 3-birds-with-1-stone initiative gain political support in any countries, where its success could cause it to spread globally?
The only limit is our will, determination, and imagination, which is only limited by our state of mind. What do you think? Would such an initiative work, or would it be one of the many failed government projects?
Drugs around the world have had the tendency to cause violence and death, but if distributed responsibly they could be an even bigger asset than they were a scourge in the past.
Also, if we wanted to widen the scope of such a plan even further, we could even use an initiative of this type to help combat widespread drug addiction by both improving knowledge of the drugs, and undercutting whatever local drug dealers can scrape off the street.
Assuming we widened the scope, we could increase law enforcement while simultaneously allowing legal drugs (requiring possible screening, brain scans, regulation, and/or terms and conditions) so that it would push the dealers under (interestingly, I had an idea of the state undercutting the dealers to improve control over the market, reducing violence, etc. And just recently I read online that that is what the president of Columbia is attempting)
Widening the scope to overcoming street gangs would obviously be a strategy game, in order to reduce and not increase the number of drug addicts, but it has a much better chance of success than declaring war on them.
I have read posters that say things like 'you don't need drugs to have fun, friends, etc' but my personal experience has told me that, in moderation and using the correct types and dosage, they can very dramatically improve those factors. And of course if they aren't used properly they'll ruin your life.
I currently live my life as 'who I've become' rather than the person I once was. Never before would I have even had the ability to have a job. I even dropped out, but I discovered that my mindset is even more important than any diploma, and I'm now in a job doing programming, when previously no direction in life seemed feasible.
Also, I discovered that effort is completely subjective. One person can technically be using far less brainpower than a peer, and yet feel way more fatigue and frustration and misery, because their brain's chemical balance makes it nearly impossible to get their body to use that energy, at least properly. How hard you're working does not reflect how hard your brain's working. In fact, it's most dedicated to its work when you are enjoying what you do. It explains why, for example, Nikola Tesla got so smart. He wasn't that significant to start with, but he saw a cool demonstration of electricity and couldn't get enough of it. Then, inspired and very passionate about electricity, he quickly rose to become one of the most well known inventors in the field. We could do that with many, in the economy, because whether you are interested in something is also relative, and can be influenced by medication. By getting true interest in work, you increase productivity, innovation, and workplace satisfaction drastically. By feeling an actual connection to your task, you can improve on what you have, thus innovation.
This is feeling like it would be more like five birds with one windmill than only two birds with one stone, and windmills make electricity, doubling the bargain. (Maybe we need some dead bird graveyards for all them dead birds)
Tell me your opinion on such an idea.
edited 4×, last 10.09.22 09:43:07 am
Raisun
. There is no practical reason for this to fail, (except for fringe conspiracy theorists claiming the government is using drugs to influence our minds actually being right 
)