The last point that Professor Bezio made was to think about what we think we know and what we know. Every day we make assumptions about people, places, things, and ideas, but typically these assumptions are not out of facts. The example about sandwich cutting was so legit because I assumed that everyone just cut their sandwich in half, but some cut them in fours. I don’t think cutting my food in half makes me a better person, but if you look at a bigger idea, it could be different.
I assumed before Flanigan’s research that you would be crazy to self-medicate. Why would anyone spend the money and time educating themselves to become doctors people can just go against their recommendations and take whatever they want ? I think she provides a solid argument that self-medicating can help lead to a decrease in black-market drug deals. The government could put a more regulated system in place to buy the medication from a store or get it from your local doctor. On the flip side of this, it is not explicitly mentioned in the reading, but black market + under the table deals are a huge part of the economy even if it can’t be explicitly calculated. If the government allows self-medication, the sector is gone. I am not saying that I specifically believe that black-markets are good, but they create jobs and are people’s livelihoods. Looking at a drug like Adderall, it is prevented from improving productivity. College students especially love that; however, you can’t legally get it if you don’t have ADD. If you were to allow for self-medication, the potentially sketchy black-market transactions would decrease, but you would have tons of kids on stimulants running around.
There are many answers to the question, and I just looked at part of it. Still, when you talk about life assumptions, you have to look at the facts and evaluate to make sure any implicit biases or even explicit biases are coming out when making the assumptions.