> Who expects medicine to be free because they cost nothing to replicate? The point is that it would be easier for people to digest the costs if they paid for

> Who expects medicine to be free because they cost nothing to replicate? The point is that it would be easier for people to digest the costs if they paid for development, not for the cost of producing the pills. Let's say it costs $1B to produce a certain new type of medication. The company who developed it expects to sell about 100 million pills a year. The pills cost $0.01 to produce. Sell the pills for $0.02 and for the first 10 years add a $20/pill 'development cost recuperation' charge, list it on the bill as such. The company gets a 200% R.O.I. on initial development, plus a 200% R.O.I on every pill sold. Few people have problems with a company recovering their costs and making a decent profit. The problems start when the costs have been made back ten times over and they are still keeping the price high using the initial development costs as an excuse. What I'm trying to say is that companies should adjust their business model to align with how people perceive the world, instead of trying to rewrite millions of years of evolution to fit their business model. Why are services like Netflix and Spotify so popular ? Not because people suddenly changed their mind about paying for IP. Netflix and Spotify sell a service, and people accept that services cost money.