Do not think about, write about or deal with human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.
The Battle of Britain, which was really several different battles, the shipping battle, the airfield battle and the cities battle, began in the fine summer of 1940. Contrary to national stereotypes, the British were much better prepared and executed the battle much better than the Germans. The RAF, almost too late, recognized that the skills of fighter pilots did not reside solely in the educationally advantaged and the sons of shopkeepers, farmers and etc. made large contributions to victory. Douglas Bader, the prickly, and legless legend, led a Canadian squadron and a Canadian Johnny Kent, led a British squadron. Here’s to those modest heroes of long ago. Twenty Canadian pilots fell on the front line.
Robert Whitaker, of this book, commented on several times in the current blog,
Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs, and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America. New York: Crown., has a talk on the internet which encapsulates some of the book.
One of his theses is that the tremendous overuse of psychotropic drugs is producing results in children best described as catastrophic. In 1987, for example, 16.200 children were on long-term disability benefits for “mental problems”. Currently, there are over 600,000 with the number increasing by 100,000 per year. Whitaker attributes this to the disabling effects of long-term drug use. He calls this, “Harm done on a grand, grand scale.”
Watch the video.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies
July 28, 2010 at 9:12 am |
[...] Some quotes lifted from this article which is written like a more traditional scientific paper and is the basis of his book. [...]