I’ve had it! The comedians joke about it. Bernie Sanders railed against it on Seth Meyers the other night but with “Citizens United” in effect, evidently no one can do anything about it.
Back in the day when many corporations couldn’t advertise on television, you could watch your favorite program with only a typical food or auto commercial to interrupt the show. At that time there were only three channels and you couldn’t record the shows to skip or pause the commercials. This gave everyone intermission to grab a snack, go to the bathroom, or discuss the show so far with the family.
Ah, the good old days. Sure there was the occasional cigarette commercial before they were eventually outlawed but even doctors were recommending their favorite brand back then.
Fast forward 60 years and you now have hundreds of channels showing millions of 5 minute blocks of ads to skip, mute or otherwise ignore as we’ve all seen them a hundred times before.
The pharmaceutical industry is out of control. Not only are we barraged with every drug imaginable to “ask our doctor” about, but there are now multiple drugs for the same ailment to consider. I get that they need to recoup their development costs but are the millions spent on all these commercials really helping boost their sales? Many are only vanity drugs marketed for the rich and/or famous anyway.
It’s now been said that price gouging is a main reason for inflation so maybe it’s time for more laws and regulations to protect consumers from this corporate greed. Let’s go back to outlawing any medicine ads that are not over-the-counter products and while we’re at it, lets dump ads from lawyers and other professions that have no business hyping us for their business.
BTW, I heard a comment on Real Time with Bill Maher recently from his Republican guest that “we” are forgetting that the lower inflation number of 5 percent doesn’t mean much until it’s at zero! I have five percent interest CDs and realized that the profit from this interest is not only a wash but since I have to pay income tax on that interest, I’m STILL losing money.
Capitalist competition is a good thing but capitalist greed is not especially for health care that shouldn’t even be a for-profit enterprise.