Of antibiotics and globalization

Here's an interesting one from the Economist -- there's a link between those who pop antibiotics and globalization -- and that link is the amount of anxiety and intolerance for uncertainty that people have. Looking at Europe,

the Dutch, Germans, Scandinavians and Baltics consuming few antibiotics, but lots being guzzled in the Mediterranean. The main users are Greece, Cyprus, France and Italy, with Spain almost as high once illicit sales without a prescription are counted.

That's a bad thing for those in the south of Europe, who love their drugs, as it is leading to drug resistant, infectious bacteria. These people don't trust authority figures to do the best for them -- so when their doctors tell them that antibiotics will do nothing to fight a cold virus, they demand antibiotics anyway. Similarly, these people don't think that globalization will lead to greater economic growth. In a poll of Europeans last year, the northern Europeans were more optimistic of globalization leading to economic growth than their southern neighbours, who were generally pessimists.