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What about price gouging by drug manufacturers? When will the government investigate that? Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another t

What about price gouging by drug manufacturers? When will the government investigate that? Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not? "In 2001, Acthar sold for about $40 a vial. Today: more than $40,000. An increase of 100,000 percent." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-problem-with-prescription-drug-prices/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-problem-with-prescription-d...

wruza 7y ago
Nah, that’s only thousands of children a year, pretty much different situation, and also you have one small guy to punch instead of a faceless pharma lobby. /s
Pfhreak 7y ago
Whataboutism doesn't really help. Yes, there are systemic issues with our healthcare system. What this guy did was also wrong. We can choose to address both. We can choose to be upset with both.
eru 7y ago
> Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not? 'Price gouging' is not an accepted part of capitalism. Those laws (and customs..) that call out some prices as 'gouging' are bad economics and not 'proper capitalism' either way. But you are right, that the drug prices are an even more egregious example. And, of course, we get those weird prices because of heavy and incompetent government interference in the drug markets. So we should probably look into scaling back that interference, instead of adding even more. (And I specifically mention incompetent interference. To give a counter-example, for the most part I am quite happy with the economic policies of my local government. But then, I live in Singapore, where our Prime Minister was the top math graduate of his year in Cambridge, writes C++ sudoku solvers for fun and is looking forward to learning Haskell when he retires.)
- _tulpa 7y ago
  > 'proper capitalism' Price-gouging is absolutely acceptable capitalism, we only call it 'gouging' because being a greedy asshole doesn't align too well with the moral compasses of most of society. Which is why government 'interference' is a thing in the first place, because otherwise capitalism doesn't give a shit about morals or correctness or acceptableness or anything that isn't capital. It there's any interference it's so much more likely that it's corporate money interfering with the government.
  - eru 7y ago
    Oh, raising prices is absolutely 'proper capitalism'. I was objecting to complaining about raising prices as not being proper capitalism. > It there's any interference it's so much more likely that it's corporate money interfering with the government. If only! I'd rather have Warren Buffett or Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos etc have more say over what the government is doing than the status quo.
- MagnumOpus 7y ago
  > we get those weird prices because of heavy and incompetent government interference in the drug markets. So we should probably look into scaling back that interference No, we get it because of the wrong kind of interference (due to regulatory capture and government corruption). I think in Singapore the government interferes heavily too - at the very least posing as a bundling buyer for hospitals to put drug purchases out for tender. Every developed country does this.
  - eru 7y ago
    Hence my addition of the important qualifier of 'incompetent'. In any case, the medical system itself provides a lot of examples of regulation driving prices in most cases. Less regulated subsectors like Lasik eye surgery, or elective dental work, or cosmetic surgery, generally improved in quality and dropped in price in the last few decades. (Another thing to investigate for me would be vet care. The technologies involved are similar enough; but the legal environments are radically different in most jurisdictions. If memory serves right, the evidence was mixed.)
jturpin 7y ago
> Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not? It's not. No one is on the other side of this except those profiting. We all want medicine to affordable to everyone, not just the wealthiest of us.
salawat 7y ago
It isn't really. The issue though is one of effected population. Many people were and are pissed at this type of gouging by pharma companies (see what happened to Shkreli). The pendulum does seem to be swinging back from unrestrained capitalism a bit, but that's also required there to be more data gathered with regard to where and how exactly legal/political/social pressure can be applied to change the behavior. Mind, for about the last 40 years, there has been a pretty consistent trend of deregulation and companies flaunting their regulators. Hopefully the winds are shifting as a new demographic is entering the political arena having been the butt-end of this status-quo for a while.
HeadsUpHigh 7y ago
To this date it blows my mind that people don't realize that drug prices are a result of market intervention, not the other way around. Finding holes in FDA regulations for drug monopolies is a clear cut case of too many regulations that just don't work well together, not the other way around.
yesplorer 7y ago
For every one Congressman, there are 5 pharma industry lobbyists. Heard it on an NPR podcast fee days ago. So i guess that is the reason.

wruza 7y ago

Nah, that’s only thousands of children a year, pretty much different situation, and also you have one small guy to punch instead of a faceless pharma lobby. /s

Pfhreak 7y ago

Whataboutism doesn't really help. Yes, there are systemic issues with our healthcare system. What this guy did was also wrong. We can choose to address both. We can choose to be upset with both.

eru 7y ago

> Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not? 'Price gouging' is not an accepted part of capitalism. Those laws (and customs..) that call out some prices as 'gouging' are bad economics and not 'proper capitalism' either way. But you are right, that the drug prices are an even more egregious example. And, of course, we get those weird prices because of heavy and incompetent government interference in the drug markets. So we should probably look into scaling back that interference, instead of adding even more. (And I specifically mention incompetent interference. To give a counter-example, for the most part I am quite happy with the economic policies of my local government. But then, I live in Singapore, where our Prime Minister was the top math graduate of his year in Cambridge, writes C++ sudoku solvers for fun and is looking forward to learning Haskell when he retires.)

_tulpa 7y ago
> 'proper capitalism' Price-gouging is absolutely acceptable capitalism, we only call it 'gouging' because being a greedy asshole doesn't align too well with the moral compasses of most of society. Which is why government 'interference' is a thing in the first place, because otherwise capitalism doesn't give a shit about morals or correctness or acceptableness or anything that isn't capital. It there's any interference it's so much more likely that it's corporate money interfering with the government.
- eru 7y ago
  Oh, raising prices is absolutely 'proper capitalism'. I was objecting to complaining about raising prices as not being proper capitalism. > It there's any interference it's so much more likely that it's corporate money interfering with the government. If only! I'd rather have Warren Buffett or Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos etc have more say over what the government is doing than the status quo.
MagnumOpus 7y ago
> we get those weird prices because of heavy and incompetent government interference in the drug markets. So we should probably look into scaling back that interference No, we get it because of the wrong kind of interference (due to regulatory capture and government corruption). I think in Singapore the government interferes heavily too - at the very least posing as a bundling buyer for hospitals to put drug purchases out for tender. Every developed country does this.
- eru 7y ago
  Hence my addition of the important qualifier of 'incompetent'. In any case, the medical system itself provides a lot of examples of regulation driving prices in most cases. Less regulated subsectors like Lasik eye surgery, or elective dental work, or cosmetic surgery, generally improved in quality and dropped in price in the last few decades. (Another thing to investigate for me would be vet care. The technologies involved are similar enough; but the legal environments are radically different in most jurisdictions. If memory serves right, the evidence was mixed.)

jturpin 7y ago

> Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not? It's not. No one is on the other side of this except those profiting. We all want medicine to affordable to everyone, not just the wealthiest of us.

salawat 7y ago

It isn't really. The issue though is one of effected population. Many people were and are pissed at this type of gouging by pharma companies (see what happened to Shkreli). The pendulum does seem to be swinging back from unrestrained capitalism a bit, but that's also required there to be more data gathered with regard to where and how exactly legal/political/social pressure can be applied to change the behavior. Mind, for about the last 40 years, there has been a pretty consistent trend of deregulation and companies flaunting their regulators. Hopefully the winds are shifting as a new demographic is entering the political arena having been the butt-end of this status-quo for a while.

HeadsUpHigh 7y ago

To this date it blows my mind that people don't realize that drug prices are a result of market intervention, not the other way around. Finding holes in FDA regulations for drug monopolies is a clear cut case of too many regulations that just don't work well together, not the other way around.

yesplorer 7y ago

For every one Congressman, there are 5 pharma industry lobbyists. Heard it on an NPR podcast fee days ago. So i guess that is the reason.