This is how I feel about the substance abuse recovery business: "a 42 BILLION DOLLAR industry has grown out of [12 step programs]. The treatment centers preach AA as the only game in town so they keep sending people to AA and doctors keep sending patients to treatment and it’s a never-ending cycle. I am not blaming AA. I blame the centers, which even if not-for-profit, are paying executives what would be profits in salaries; and the doctors with addiction specialties who seem satisfied with results below the Mendoza line (a baseball reference to a batting average under .200).

I blame them for complacency; I blame them for profiteering. I blame the perversion of capitalism that cares more about profit and the resultant concentration of wealth than societal benefit at the expense of the workers and the middle class; in this instance, I blame the system that allows a few to get rich on the backs of the sick."