Underscoring who the real enemies of the USA are.

[whell]

Originally Posted by MrPots

Pharmaceuticals cost roughly half outside the US what they do in the US. Why? Because the United States does not regulate industry so industry has free reign to do anything...including jacking up the price of drugs for the sole purpose of meeting wall street expectations. Yep...gotta keep those rich wall street investors happy at all cost. It doesn't matter to them if the rabble has to die for their millions in profits.

That's only half the story.

The pharmaceutical industry says controls such as those seen in Europe discourage investment in research and deny patients access to some drugs. “The U.S. has a competitive biopharmaceutical marketplace that works to control costs while encouraging the development of new treatments and cures,” said Lori Reilly, an executive at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association.

If U.S. pricing fell to European levels, the industry would almost certainly cut its R&D spending, said Mr. Evans, the health-care analyst. “Does the U.S. subsidize global research? Absolutely, yes,” he said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-...ugs-1448939481

So, in very twisted way, the US consumer is exclusively funding advances in drug therapies for the rest of the word. If the US adopted the European model, we'd have cheaper drugs but advances in drug therapy would slow to a crawl.

Now, that's not a vote in favor of the current system of pricing, but the global playing field is tilted against the US consumer.

[nailer]

The American consumer is funding Big Pharm R&D to the benefit of the corporate* bottom line.


*Medical Industrial Complex

[icenine]

Originally Posted by nailer

The American consumer is funding Big Pharm R&D to the benefit of the corporate* bottom line.


*Medical Industrial Complex

So you have opted out of Medicare. I always laugh at you when you criticize the Military Industrial Complex....but you were a part of it.

[nailer]

I was a wage slave.

Was I a part of the MIC when working on reports looking into the Pension Benefit Guarantee Program or End Stage Renal Disease?

[icenine]

Originally Posted by nailer

I was a wage slave.

Was I a part of the MIC when working on reports looking into the Pension Benefit Guarantee Program or End Stage Renal Disease?

If you are a Federal Worker you are part of it. If you audited military spending your position rested upon the fact there was a military to audit in the first place. I don't put down the MIC because I am retired Navy and work now as DOD civilian. I am not saying everything is fine about the MIC, but I realize it would wrong for me to put it down if I am drawing my existence from it. The GAO would not exist without the agencies it audits. There is no "good part" and "bad part" of the Federal workforce in my outlook.

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, FERS,CRS are all interconnected. And millions of federal workers make those programs viable with their taxes, just as the rest of American workforce does.

Yes I am an asshole, as a drill instructor once said to me on my first morning in Navy boot camp.

[nailer]

Originally Posted by icenine

If you are a Federal Worker you are part of it. If you audited military spending your position rested upon the fact there was a military to audit in the first place. I don't put down the MIC because I am retired Navy and work now as DOD civilian. I am not saying everything is fine about the MIC, but I realize it would wrong for me to put it down if I am drawing my existence from it. The GAO would not exist without the agencies it audits. There is no "good part" and "bad part" of the Federal workforce in my outlook.

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, FERS,CRS are all interconnected. And millions of federal workers make those programs viable with their taxes, just as the rest of American workforce does.

Yes I am an asshole, as a drill instructor once said to me on my first morning in Navy boot camp.

Sounds like a personal problem.

Without groups the individual does not exist.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by nailer

Sounds like a personal problem.

Without groups, the individual does not exist.

Wihout groups the individual is all that exists.

[nailer]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Wihout groups the individual is all that exists.

If the individual is all that exists it is nothing.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by nailer

If the individual is all that exists it is nothing.

My statement was conditional, not absolute.

[nailer]

And with my original group/individual observation I was concurring with icenine's observation.

Conditional on what?