New Treatment For Affluenza; Stop Giving The Rich Everything They Want

 

New Treatment For Affluenza; Stop Giving The Rich Everything They Want

 

Author: Randa Morris December 29, 2013 5:17 pm

 

30 different studies by Berkeley researchers show that the rich lie, cheat and steal more often than the poor and they found the cure for that too.

By now most people are familiar with the case of Ethan Couch. Couch, is a 16-year-old from Texas, who took the lives of four innocent people, while driving drunk last June. The case drew national attention after a psychologist testified that the teen suffers from something called “Affluenza.” Just to be clear, Affluenza, an affliction which supposedly results from rich people getting everything they want, is not a real medical diagnosis.

‘Affluenza,’ is just a fancy word for ‘spoiled brat.’

Couch’s psychologist, G. Dick Miller, was recently interviewed by Anderson Cooper. During that interview, Miller agreed with Cooper, when he suggested that what Miller calls ‘Affluenza,’ is just a fancy term for “spoiled brat.” Wes Williams covered the story for Addicting Info, saying that Miller “shows a lot of concern for Couch’s welfare,” while showing little concern over the four people killed, or the people who lost loved ones because of Ethan Couch’s actions.

But wait a minute. Is Miller really showing concern for Ethan Couch’s welfare? On the one hand, he claims that his patient has been psychologically damaged by his pampered, rich kid life style. On the other hand, he told the court that it would be best for Ethan Couch to continue his pampered, rich kid lifestyle.

That sounds a lot like prescribing cigarettes as a cure for cancer. Or writing a prescription for chocolate cake to treat obesity. If Ethan Couch’s twisted pathology is the result of years of being a rich kid, allowed to do whatever he wants, without consequences, how is it in his best interest to continue that pattern?

Berkeley researchers discovered that rich people are more likely to lie, steal, cheat and disobey the law.

In the summer of 2013, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley discovered some pretty amazing things about the psychological differences between rich people and poor people. Beginning with the fact that rich people lie, steal, cheat and disobey the law far more often than poor people. They were more likely to ignore traffic laws and yes, they were more likely to run someone down with a car. Like Ethan Couch ran down those four people in Texas.

According to the results of 30 different studies, carried out both inside and outside of the laboratory, rich people lack compassion and empathy. They also show an exaggerated sense of entitlement, believing they deserve more than others, and that they earned things which were actually given to them. If you were not inclined to call them ‘spoiled brats,’ you could say that the rich subjects of the Berkeley study were also afflicted with ‘Affluenza.’

Researchers also discovered that when rich people become poor, they act differently.

But what was most remarkable about the Berkeley study is that the researchers also found a way to cure these people. When rich people were made to feel poor, they suddenly became more compassionate and acted more ethically. They were less likely to lie, cheat and steal. If this treatment worked for them, we can assume it would work for Ethan Couch, and other ‘poor rich folks’.

You can’t treat a disease with its cause.

Of course ‘Affluenza’ is not a real medical or psychological condition. Yet, if it was, what real condition would be treated by prescribing more of the same thing that caused it? When a person has a real health condition, the first thing a doctor does is look for the cause. Once the cause is found, it’s taken away.

So how does Miller justify treating his patient, whom he seems to believe is the victim of his rich kid, entitled life style, with more pampering? Not only is this treatment of Ethan Couch against the best interests of society, it seems that it is not even in Ethan Couch’s best interest.

Miller claimed that Ethan Couch is ‘sick’ because he’s a spoiled rich kid. Then he asked the judge to give him preferential treatment, because he’s a spoiled rich kid. And the judge did exactly that.

Ethan Couch was sentenced to ten years probation. The court recommended he receive treatment in a luxurious California rehabilitation center, costing $450,000 per year. But Couch will emerge from the rich kid treatment center as the same spoiled rich kid who went into it. Worse, he will probably emerge even more convinced that he’s above the law, and more certain that he can get away with anything.

Here’s what the doctor should have prescribed.

If Miller was at all concerned about treating his patient, he should have recommended that Ethan Couch be stripped of all the privileges that go along with being a rich white kid. If he really believed his own ’Affluenza’ diagnosis and truly wanted to help Ethan Couch,’ then according to the research done at Berkeley, he should have recommended the following:

1. Take away Ethan Couch’s designer clothes and replace them with a prison uniform.
2. Take away his luxury, private accommodations and replace them with a prison cell. Give him a room-mate whose favorite phrase is “Touch that and I’ll kick your ass, boy.”
3. Take away all the elegant furnishings he’s used to and replace them with a metal cot and a urinal in the corner.
4. Take away the usual six course, gourmet meals and replace them with three squares of unidentifiable ‘mush and chunks’.
5. Stop allowing him to get away with murder.

This treatment would work for bankers, Wall Street traders, corporate CEO’s and Congress people too.

The only thing shown to treat the symptoms of “Affluenza,’ selfishness, greed, vanity, egotism, entitlement, lack of morals and ethics, etc… is to remove the person’s wealth and take away their privileged status.

According to the Berkeley research team, once rich people stop seeing themselves as rich people, they develop all kinds of human characteristics, like empathy, morality and compassion, for starters. In other words, with the right treatment, even rich people can become productive members of society.

This treatment would not just work to cure spoiled teenagers like Ethan Couch. It could also be used on bankers, Wall Street traders, corporate CEO’s, Congress people, former presidents and anyone else who is used to getting everything they want, believes that they should get away with murder and who sees themselves as entirely above the law.