4 ms·

And this is the REAL issue. If I was allowed to start a pharma company as easily as I could start a software company then you bet I would be doing that instead

And this is the REAL issue. If I was allowed to start a pharma company as easily as I could start a software company then you bet I would be doing that instead of SAAS. I can guarantee that prices would be lower than the rest of the world, and that American pharma companies would be top-of-market in international markets as well. But, the mafioso in-bed-with-the-gov-and-politicians absolutely corrupt elitist-owned system that we have in America is ruining this country. And to all the people downvoting the "regulation" comments: You are being COMPLETELY intellectually dishonest, and you know it. Game theory validates that regulatory capture is 100% the issue. The Universe and nature work by a set of laws that has been investigated since the 50s with Von Neumann, Nash, etc. It is time that we stop telling ourselves that some politicians in government are going to magically create legal algorithms that outperform the laws of the nature. It is dangerous, immoral, and stupid and it ends up only protecting and embedding the existing corrupt elite for life.

tomp 6y ago
I generally agree with the sentiment but you definitely go too far. > Game theory validates that regulatory capture is 100% the issue. Regulatory capture cannot be the issue because it exists pretty much everywhere (in the Western world, I guess), yet US prices/insurance/medical spending is higher than in e.g. Europe. Maybe it's the US flavour of regulatory capture - that's an option - but then you should be railing against that, not pulling a fake reductio ad game theory argument out of your sleeve - I mean, what do you propose as the alternative, an unregulated drug market? I mean, I'm very much in that direction - I believe all drugs should be legal and accessible, the only restriction I'd put on the "freely" part of "freely accessible" (e.g. new/experimental drugs only if you're dying, hard drugs like heroin only if you go through 6 months of classes & psychiatric evaluation, etc.) - but even that's clearly still a "regulated market" (e.g. disallows misleading advertising).
hnracer 6y ago
I'm curious about the details of this for insulin. Is it a problem with one political party or with both? Does the pharma oligopoly control the politicians through donations/funding? Or is there a legitimate IP protection reason that the pharma companies have that justifies the lack of competition for insulin provision?

tomp 6y ago

I generally agree with the sentiment but you definitely go too far. > Game theory validates that regulatory capture is 100% the issue. Regulatory capture cannot be the issue because it exists pretty much everywhere (in the Western world, I guess), yet US prices/insurance/medical spending is higher than in e.g. Europe. Maybe it's the US flavour of regulatory capture - that's an option - but then you should be railing against that, not pulling a fake reductio ad game theory argument out of your sleeve - I mean, what do you propose as the alternative, an unregulated drug market? I mean, I'm very much in that direction - I believe all drugs should be legal and accessible, the only restriction I'd put on the "freely" part of "freely accessible" (e.g. new/experimental drugs only if you're dying, hard drugs like heroin only if you go through 6 months of classes & psychiatric evaluation, etc.) - but even that's clearly still a "regulated market" (e.g. disallows misleading advertising).

hnracer 6y ago

I'm curious about the details of this for insulin. Is it a problem with one political party or with both? Does the pharma oligopoly control the politicians through donations/funding? Or is there a legitimate IP protection reason that the pharma companies have that justifies the lack of competition for insulin provision?