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[-] deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I read the first paragraph of this article and I already think it sucks. If heroin was fully legalized, zero restrictions, we’d be much better off than the current situation we have right now with the war on drugs, fentanyl analogs, and xylazine. Full stop.

Second paragraph:

Heroin distribution and sales would quickly become a huge, multibillion-dollar industry. They would become a significant part of GDP, even though heroin harms and often kills those who consume it. Given the increasingly naked corruption of U.S. politics, the heroin industry would be able to purchase massive political influence, enough to block any attempts to limit the harm it does — the harm it knows it does, because heroin industry executives would surely be aware of the damage their products inflict.

This is already happening. Who is this author and why is he so ignorant of the past few decades of opiate problems in the US? There is not a significant fundamental difference between heroin and any other opiate/opioid. I say this as someone who has experimented with many types of them.

Based on this I’m not gonna read the rest of the article because he’s already demonstrated a head-up-ass perspective.

[-] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Paul Krugman is a nobel-prize winning economist who used to have a column in the NY Times. He has a relatively impressive record of predicting terrible things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman

And while I certainly don't want to push back on the difference between heroin and other opium derivatives, it's worth noting that legally speaking they're both exactly as illegal when not used as prescribed for the treatment of pain or disease.

It's not a blog post about heroin or opiates, though, so quibbling over the imperfections of his analogy is kinda missing the point. Please give it another read if you have a few minutes; the analogy is fairly apt, though very depressing as an American.

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Paul Krugman is a nobel-prize winning economist who used to have a column in the NY Times.

Aka totally discredited.

The "nobel in econ" is as much of a fraud as econ in general.

Anybody who knows this goofball knows not to listen to his crap.

[-] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

An ad hominum attack and a distinction without a difference is a hell of a response to "who is this guy".

Do you want to show the class where on your wallet the Keynesian model of economics touched you? (Or do you perhaps have a "Krugman sucks and you shouldn't listen to him" link you'd like to share?)

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Since you went for an Appeal to Authority as the very first paragraph of your comment, a response that trashes that person's authoritative credentials is logic in the very context you created and thus not an Ad Hominum.

Without that first paragraph on your post you would've been right to claim Ad Hominum.

[-] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

You didnt attack any of his actual credentials, though. You just said that he should be dismissed because he wrote for a particular newspaper and the award he was given by the Swiss government was not one of the awards given by the Swiss government funded by the gift of a 19th century arms merchant.

If you want to rebut my statement that Krugman "has a pretty good track record", please do so! But you didn't, and haven't, and instead asserted your own biases as fact.

Which is obviously your right to do but, again, is a really weird response to a "who is this guy" post.

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Based on this I’m not gonna read the rest of the article because he’s already demonstrated a head-up-ass perspective.

You do know that the entire rest of the article never mentions drugs ever again and you're getting needlessly spun-up about a metaphor for social media and you're just trolling, right?

[-] deranger@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

No, I’m not trolling. Why would I believe this person to know what they’re talking about in a subject I don’t understand well, when I know they’re wrong about a subject I do understand well?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

[-] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Sackler heroin? ... Only if Bayer gives up the patent!

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

Yeah because the tobacco, pain reliever, and social media industries clearly show how great and non predatory totally legal heroin would be.

[-] ijon_the_human@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Who is this author and why is he so ignorant of the past few decades of opiate problems in the US?

The author is Paul Krugman, a little known economist, writes for the papers I think.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Sorry if I'm getting whooshed, but Krugman is an infamous economist. He takes really big swings and is sometimes incredibly wrong.

[-] deranger@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago

I’ve heard the name before but I’m not super tuned into this area. The analogy just really struck out for me in the first two paragraphs, monumentally so. If he writes with this amount of conviction about something he clearly has no idea about, I’m not likely to trust anything else that he writes in the same article. It’s important to know your limitations.

[-] Devial@discuss.online -1 points 1 month ago

Has this dude never heard of the tobacco, alcohol or gun Industry ?

He's talking about commercial heroin like it's some outlandish and unthinkable idea that a harmful thing would become a billion dollar industry

[-] pdxfed@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

He's deliberately making the point accessible because he's writing for all levels of readers, including Americans.

He won the nobel prize for economics and was one of the few sane voices during the great recession.

[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago

Seems like the Opium Wars all over again.

[-] lmr0x61@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Damn Paul, from downtown!

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Krugman is a worthless hack. Sensational headline with implicit endorsement of prohibition is a prime example.

Edit about the "nobel": Everybody who's talking about this "nobel prize". There is no nobel prize in econ. It's a phony award made up by bankers. That's how pathetic the pseudo-science of economics is. They need to make up their own fake awards for relevancy. So please don't tout the phony awards of this pseudo-scientists. I could make up an award for flat earthers but that wouldn't legitimize flat earthism.

(And even if there were a nobel for econ... Who cares about awards if the underlying "science" is still trash?)

[-] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Here's one of the best traders talking about the same issue:

https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=bMK8ct6ybjQ&t=1918

It's eloquent and funny at the same time.

I included a timestamp to jump (almost) directly to the most relevant bit (also 33m, but 31m sets up a better context for an extra 2min of time compared to going directly to the 33m mark). But the whole video is worth watching.

Yes, Krugman is a hack.

[-] cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Being one of the best paid traders in the world does not necessarily qualify you to advise the government... There are plenty of morons who (for some time) are able to make a killing as a trader due to taking excessive risks and being sufficiently lucky for some stretch of time.

this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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