(August 27, 2016 at 9:28 am)Cato Wrote:(August 27, 2016 at 8:12 am)Brian37 Wrote: NO, greed by one party and lack of effective laws. Government is needed, what is not needed is our fellow humans not giving a fuck about other humans. I'm old enough to know what Reagan's deregulation has done over the past 36 years.
Effective laws? Your constant invocation of greed seems to suggest that you would support a law that would cap prices or margin. Have a look at Venezuela for an example of the consequences. It's the current laws that have created the problem. For me, effective laws as a solution would be to modify patent law that would work to ensure R&D recovery while not artificially establishing a government mandated monopoly. FDA regulation should also be modified, in this case the classification rules mentioned earlier that would prevent doctors from immediately prescribing a generic alternative.
You wail about deregulation, yet refuse to recognize regulation as part of the problem. Your reflexive hatred for all things business has blinded you to what the problem is.
I commiserate with those of limited means that truly need the potentially life saving device, but cannot square your constant lambasting of business for their greed while seemingly being okay with wanting at-cost supply based on need. Think about it. If the current price (I'll use $600/year) was the actual market price and not an inflated price allowed by the government created monopoly, someone on minimum wage would spend twenty minutes of every workday towards a life saving purchase (I used the federal rate and 240 working days per year). How many minutes of each day are worked for entertainment and other nonessential discretionary spending that cannot reasonably rise to the qualification of 'need' like a potentially life saving device? People spend more than $2.50 per day on overpriced coffee.
Ugggggg, no.
I really do get tired of the false accusation or implication that every business in the world is bad. NO, but the climate is far too full of those at the top that are doing nothing but exploiting. Business can do good, but better business is that which improves not exploits. There simply is no justification or morality in jacking up prices like that. You can call it complex and claim "you just don't understand" all you want.
A little inequity in life will happen, and is to be expected, but what we have now is a race to the bottom, not positive competition that lifts others.
