[pants2]

I had the pleasure of visiting a town on the Amazon river a few times over the course of a decade. I watched as western culture and civilization creeped in and ruined their society.

The first time I went, people were living off the land, fishing, gardening, children playing ball games, etc.

Here's what I saw last time I went: Gambling, alcoholism, plastic waste, sugary drinks, public advertising, and kids glued to their smartphones. Forests being cleared to raise cattle because now everyone wants to eat burgers.

They've managed to bring in the worst parts of modern society without the good parts (medicine, infrastructure, education, etc.)

I do believe that without a modern education, these people are not equipped to deal with modern vices. They've never taken a math class let alone learned enough probability to know that gambling is a losing bet. They've never had a nutrition class to learn that Coca Cola is disastrous to your health.

[AnthonyMouse]

> I do believe that without a modern education, these people are not equipped to deal with modern vices.

This isn't limited to the third world. The reason sports betting becomes such a problem is that people don't have a solid foundation in basic statistics.

People go bankrupt by thinking they can get out of a small debt by placing even larger bets at a negative expected value.

[genewitch]

Martingale is dumb, but i think that's the point, it's telling you what not to do because the only way to recover your initial lost bet is to have a larger bank than the house (and why casinos restrict max bets, $2000 max, $10000 max) - martingale fails.

If you just gotta have a betting system because it helps quell the gambling anxiety or whatever, reverse martingale is fine. I made a video a long time ago about how it works[0] - but in essence, you only stand to lose your initial bet, and you have a bet schedule if you start winning. In "bet units" the way i do it is 1 unit until a win, then for each consecutive win: 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5 (etc). Everything after the first 3 unit bet is the casino's money you're gambling with, which is a good feeling. Note, this implies i consider each "round" that starts after a loss as separate from other rounds, obviously if you lose 20 times in a row and then win 3 games you're not suddenly in the green!

There's no system guaranteed to make you winner, but there are systems to help you lose more slowly, and reverse martingale is my go-to

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwu-5g3q-2E

[exogenousdata]

Martingale, baby!!!

[robocat]

> They've never taken a math class let alone learned enough probability to know that gambling is a losing bet.

Smart well-educated people get caught in the gambling trap too. Addiction and emotions are the issue, not knowledge of how the house always wins.

Not much different from other addictions - people know alcohol and smoking are bad yet they don't stop.

[Aeolun]

> They've never taken a math class let alone learned enough probability to know that gambling is a losing bet.

Even with a modern education this is a losing proposition for many people...

[pbhjpbhj]

The almost perpetual brainwashing (adverts) don't really help.

[mrtksn]

>They've managed to bring in the worst parts of modern society without the good parts

IMHO That's the spontaneous action and unless curated carefully it happens everywhere. It's the spontaneous way because all the bad things about the Western culture are about getting rich or happy quick. I'm sure the outer civilizations also desire to get rich or happy quick and that's why they end up trying when exposed to the Western ways but unlike those cultures the west is very good at oiling the machine to run very productively. Maybe its something about being an industrialized high throughput individualistic culture, I don't know.

[programjames]

Isn't it also possible that the best in their society just left to find other opportunities? The people who couldn't leave would be more prone to gambling, alcoholism, etc.

[ab5tract]

The best are not prone to addiction or gambling? Better revise our meritocracy to downgrade the value of Wall St brokers to poverty levels then.

[P_I_Staker]

> I do believe that without a modern education, these people are not equipped to deal with modern vices. They've never taken a math class let alone learned enough probability to know that gambling is a losing bet. They've never had a nutrition class to learn that Coca Cola is disastrous to your health.

Talking about Americans???

[chr15m]

This sounds like an amazing story. Do you have anything documented?

[hansoolo]

This is so sad to hear...

[leoedin]

The education point is interesting. If you grow up as a hunter gatherer, there are powerful forces you don’t understand trying to take resources away from you. If you grow up in a capitalist society, there are powerful forces you don’t understand trying to force all sorts of “resources” on you.

Success in a modern capitalist society is driven in part by your ability to say no to things.

[throwaway2037]

Two things: OP said they were farmers, or peasants if you will. Now you are talking hunter gathers. To me, they are totally different levels of human development.

And, specifically about the few remaining hunter gather tribes in the Amazon, Brazil has a dedicated govt dept to keep these people safe from outside influence. As I understand, they have made great strides in the last 30 years to keep these tribes safe.