Ok, I was writing a reply and I got to talking about how we do not have perfect markets, we do not have infinite suppliers that would drive the profit to zero.

Ok, I was writing a reply and I got to talking about how we do not have perfect markets, we do not have infinite suppliers that would drive the profit to zero. That actually got me asking an interesting question, do we have "infinite supply"? Do we have the means to produce medicine for everyone? This might put a finger on a weird feeling I have about the economy right now. We have a trillion dollar company that is producing easily copied electronics (their operating system is harder to replicate), we have very drugs that can be easily ripped off into generics, we have media that commands hundred plus dollar a month subscriptions that can be readily shared online. I guess the feeling that I can finally put to words is that all of this stuff is horribly mispriced. Would there be a single initial investment? No, probably not. There would still be profit opportunity though. Innovation would be spread between more parties. Rather than one company doing huge amounts of R&D it would be many individuals making incremental improvements, to address their own needs or to address profit opportunities. It is the same with software ideas, I could tell you my most brilliant idea (give up my monopoly) but the chances that you would go and implement it are low. Not everyone is going to be producing generics, not everyone can, not everyone wants to. The profit does not go to zero, hopefully it would just go to affordable.