[0thgen]

none of what you just said would be a plausible explanation for the persistence of poverty, economic instability, environmental degradation, drug addiction, chronic disease, etc etc

I'd bet even the authors of the 2 books you've hinted at wouldn't even make that claim. I'm sure they would see many of the problems listed as systems-level issues

[vincnetas]

One more example how medical company profited from addictive painkillers for profit (OxyContin) :

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-tha...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_(TV_series)