5 ms·
Economically, and historically, the more wealthy tend to try out the expensive, new technologies, then as market forces play out, such technologies become cheap
by spacephysics 6y ago
Economically, and historically, the more wealthy tend to try out the expensive, new technologies, then as market forces play out, such technologies become cheaper, to where most average workers can afford them (see genome sequencing costs decline over the past 15 years.)
We need wealthy people to try out the expensive new advances. Just because someone is wealthy doesn’t necessarily mean they’re apart of the “evil billionaire” archetype, which it seems to be what you’re alluding to. Obviously cases exist where this is true, but let’s not paint with such a wide brush.
- thebigshane 6y agoAgreed. I think. It is interesting how much difference in meaning the space in "a part of" vs "apart of" makes.
- sirtaj 6y agoDidn't the price of insulin in the US nearly triple in 10 years? The market is not always particularly efficient.
- ativzzz 6y agoOne of the counterpoints is that it's not the same insulin, it's constantly new and improved insulin that functions better than the insulin we had 10 years ago, but of course each improvement comes with a price increase.
- pmiller2 6y agoI don't know if that's true or not, but it still only costs about $6 per vial to manufacture human grade insulin: https://www.businessinsider.com/insulin-prices-could-be-much-lower-and-drug-makers-would-still-make-healthy-profits-2018-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/insulin-prices-could-be-much... Apologies for citing Business Insider. It was just conveniently on the first page of Google search results.
- exolymph 6y ago"Big Pharma" is a cartel with more steps (via semi-emergent regulatory capture). Nothing to do with healthcare in the United States is anywhere close to a free market.
- pixelperfect 6y agoYes, but this is considered by many to be scandalous and I doubt it will continue to be so high-priced long-term.