It’s hard enough in business, when you are dealing with things like revenue, profit, and production quantities. The establishment of a new sales compensation system, for example, will often lead to behavior which was not predicted and is not desirable from a company point of view.

And I remember talking to one factory manager who said he didn’t like piecework systems because the workers, trying to make a little more, would do things not optimal from a safety perspective. 99.99% of the time it would be fine, but occasionally someone would lose a finger.

As an individual that went through three accidents where pain was so bad that only opiates controlled the pain (spiral fx of humerus, herniated lumbar disc, hip fx) I can say opiates were a blessing. As I healed the need for pain relief diminished and the opiates were withdrawn but during that acute time of need my surgeon/physician gave me blessed relief. All of that was years ago. Recently my wife herniated a lumbar disk and NOW her physician did not start with an opiate to relieve her severe pain. Because of the “opiate crisis” he used much weaker drugs and “titrated” her up over time to an opiate. She had over a week of torture before she had true pain relief. Neither of us were anywhere near being addicted by the use of opiates for pain relief. Neither of us craved opiates after the pain subsided. Look for another factor than pain to explain the Opiate Crisis.