Hope and faith were always the initial medicines to curing any disease. I mean, how can a patient begin his treatment if he thinks it’s incurable?
A big part of those is obviously a placebo, but imagine if there were no placebos. Human civilization would never grow past the Stone Age if people didn’t believe in long-term benefits. Religion and government always worked on the notion of “obey and we will protect you”, which is not that different from pharmaceuticals.
Promises can be empty words, since nobody has full control over the future, but nothing moves past inception if there are no promises. Nobody would invest money or time in anything if he expected direct results.
And yes, lots of drugs are useless and no more than a scam for some to make money. Can you imagine what would happen if they didn’t exist? Tens of thousands of terminal patients would run around in frenzy, or be crying all day in front of television, cursing science and the government for being unable to help. Placebos are there to shut hem up. With hope.
Now go back to your jobs, and spend a third of your life there, with the hope of money at the end of every month and a pension when you retire XD.