The biggest cause of preventable death the world has ever known—more than terrorism, wars, malaria, aids, murder and traffic accidents - is caused by 3 ordinary industries just trying to make a profit. Cigarettes, unhealthy food and alcohol kill 13 million people per year globally through a business model which erodes our ability to control our use of their products, beyond the point at which that harms us - the NHS definition of addiction.
Digital industries are following suit and doing to our minds, what these industries did to our bodies. Our research into social media, gambling, pornography, computer games and chatbots shows exactly the same playbook, with increasingly catastrophic results, particularly for the young.
Our research identified 3 drivers which create an Addiction Economy and the 3 strategies which maintain the industry grip and derail anything which threatens their profitability. We also identified what needs to be done and why on earth as a society we let it escalate to this level in the first place.
This will be published in a book for the general reader, which is coming out in 2026, and we are now developing our Manifesto for Change. To keep up-to-date, see below or check out Hilary Sutcliffe’s daily Addiction Economy Thought for The Day on LinkedIn.
News, Ideas and Insights
Addiction Economy Thought For Today
Check out Hilary’s daily post on LinkedIn. Here she shows the 6 Drivers of The Addiction Economy doing their thing as they happen, with stories from real people, media and academia.
(If you want to follow it, just go to Hilary’s Profile and click on the ‘bell’ on the top right corner and you will get a notification when it’s posted!)
Please don’t hesitate to comment, tag us or suggest thoughts via LinkedIn!
Below is the archive of posts which we started for the book, but are now transferring to our own database elsewhere on Mural as a research repository.
The concept was inspired by Seth Godin’s famous thoughtful daily email and follows on from Hilary’s previous two year LinkedIn Trust Thought For Today focusing on trustworthiness and trust in all aspects of life, politics and business.