FOA, thank you to those who read the short article. Please watch the entire video clip or podcast from the radio program included in this post.
Those who are not in agreement come in two major spheres.
1. Pharmaceuticals have a purpose but need to be regulated more strongly to make prices more affordable.
2. With all of its flaws, capitalism is the only solution when other economic systems from around the world are compared.
I disagree with both statements factually.
1. Wile our indoctrination would have you believe that drug companies take significant risks to create drugs and, therefore, their obscene profits are justified, the reality is different. Corporations do not take real risks. Most of their risks are offloaded in many forms. Drug companies don’t attempt to work on a drug until Universities and federal grants prove initial viability. The fact that they spend more on marketing than R&D is probative. Worse, all companies write off losses on present and future taxes, and as such, any risk is socialized.
2. I believe in free enterprise. Capitalism is a fraud. It is nothing but antiseptic slavery and, in some instances, worse because the source of labor is no longer capital and thus disposable, as the working class has seen over the decades. That we do not see better systems come into the fold is that we suppress every instant around the world where it is attempted.
We have been indoctrinated for too long, and we need to take the blinders off. Our economic system is working as designed, as the outcomes we said would occur are happening in real time.
I am willing to have a serious and civil conversation with anyone on my radio program who would; like to discuss this with a wider audience. Hit me up, and we will arrange a recording for the public at large.,
Predatory drug companies like Merck and Eli Lilly continue to pilfer Americans. Why do we allow them to exist even as they are immoral, inhumane, and parasitic?
Drug companies and pharmaceuticals.
Watch Politics Done Right T.V. here.
I read the title of the article by Richard Eskow and immediately knew every point that should be covered in the article. The title, “Why Should Drug Corporations Like Merck and Eli Lilly Even Exist?” said it all. And the answer is simple. These companies should not exist. They are not risk-takers, not innovators. They are parasites and deceptive marketers.
Just turn on any cable or broadcast TV network, and you will immediately see these drug companies peddling drugs. Ironically, the side effects of these drugs that I believe they are mandated to tell you about sometimes sound worse than taking the drug at all. The truth is many times, the drugs’ efficacy is just trumped up. And Trumped up is apropos.
The following four paragraphs should draw the ire of all.
How do Big Pharma executives have the nerve to show their faces in public, much less threaten to sue the government that has enriched them with the treasure—and the lives—of the American public? Government-funded discoveries have given drug companies like Merck and Eli Lilly much, if not most, of their patented technology. The government’s lax attitude toward drug company predation and criminality has made them even richer.
A recent staff report from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and its chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, found that “the average price of new treatments over the past 20 years that NIH scientists helped invent is $111,000 – more than ten times the price that led the NIH to first introduce a reasonable pricing clause in 1989.”
And yet, at the first sign that the government might ask for something in return, these corporations bite the hand that feeds them. Unfortunately, it’s the public who bleeds.
Merck’s crass lawsuit and Lilly’s bombastic threat are only the latest reminders that these corporations prey on the lives and wealth of people in the U.S. and all around the world.
How rich is Merck? Its net income was $19 billion last year, an increase of 40 percent over the previous year. Its CEO received $18,469,835 in total compensation. On average, Merck’s senior executives received more than $10 million each in 2022. More than half of that was awarded in the form of shares, giving each of Merck’s leaders a multi-million-dollar incentive to maximize profits regardless of the human cost.
And yet, these senior executives don’t seem embarrassed. In fact, the global pharmaceutical corporation is suing the United States government to prevent it from negotiating prices on a handful of drugs as permitted under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last year.
After reading the entire article, I made it the major topic of my Politics Done Right program. Please watch the included video clip or listen to the included podcast. I think most will find it enlightening and re-empowering.
Check out my books on our economic fraud, the necessity to engage the other side, and the creation of a real economy that serves us all. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to help us get to 100,000 subscribers. Will you help us deliver the progressive message widely by joining our YouTube channel now?