November 7, 2017
Posted by Jay Livingston
Addiction is not irrational. It’s just destructive. It has its own logic and reasoning. For the heroin addict, another shot of smack really will relieve the misery of withdrawal. . . till the next time.
The compulsive gamblers I studied long ago often said that their gambling debts had become so large that the only solution was to gamble even more. Otherwise, relying on their ordinary income, they would never get out of the hole. But then gambling led to more losses and even larger debt, whose solution in turn was still more gambling.
Addiction is trying to solve a problem by doing more of what caused the problem in the first place. It’s basically the NRA/John Lott position on guns. (See the previous post.)
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