Life's Pleasures Quote by Richard M. Daley

Daley’s line reads like a bureaucrat’s shrug dressed up as compassion: yes, addiction is a “problem,” but the real issue he’s circling is governance-by-contract. The phrasing is telling. He doesn’t talk about people, families, harm reduction, or treatment outcomes. He talks about “business,” twice, and “outside agencies” that “do business all over the country” as if national footprint is proof of moral authority. It’s the language of outsourcing, where competence is measured in scale and service delivery is treated like any other municipal vendor agreement.

The intent is pragmatic on its face: get professionals to handle a specialized crisis. The subtext is political insulation. Contracting “outside” experts lets City Hall claim action while creating distance from messy realities: relapse, scandals, uneven care, and the inevitable question of whether the city’s own systems failed. If it works, leadership takes credit for “modernizing.” If it fails, blame is portable.

Context matters: Daley’s Chicago brand was managerial, corporate-friendly, and famously centralized. This quote sits inside that worldview. Addiction becomes another item on the mayoral clipboard, solvable through procurement rather than public investment or structural reform. “We should be in certain businesses” isn’t just a cost-control argument; it’s a philosophy of the state. Government, in this frame, is not a guarantor of care. It’s a client, shopping for solutions, hoping the invoice can stand in for responsibility.