Priming the Pump

“Isn’t it a little odd, when you think about it, that so many people have to be hopped up on chemical stimulants just to make it through their working day?” In Current Affairs, Alex Skopic argues that A Society That Runs on Stimulants is Badly Broken. “Around the world, people are pumping themselves full of caffeine, amphetamines, and other performance-enhancing drugs just to survive their working hours. This isn’t sustainable.” Ironically, the people delivering your stimulants might need them even more than you do. “For the drivers going to and from America’s warehouses, there’s trucker meth. From Amazon to the neighborhood bodega, every business in the country depends on truck drivers to deliver its merchandise, and the work is never-ending, day and night … Drivers can be on the job ’14 hours straight, comprising up to 11 hours driving and the remaining time doing other work, such as unloading cargo.’ So they, too, load their bodies up with stimulants while they load the boxes into the truck.”