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My initial, knee-jerk view was that the government is stealing private property. Bad, bad government screwing with the free market! But here we are talking abo
by nickpp 6y ago
My initial, knee-jerk view was that the government is stealing private property. Bad, bad government screwing with the free market!
But here we are talking about Intellectual Property and patents. Which themselves are a government-granted monopoly...
Truth is patents are mostly used to stifle innovation while their original purpose was to encourage it. A company inventing something novel will have a pretty nice advantage over the competition even without the government's help. That's not even taking into consideration that besides patents there are other tons of difficulties when copying a product. Manufacturing alone is pretty huge. Then marketing: the original vs the cheap knock-offs.
When in doubt, I think it's better to err on the side of the free market and of non-intervention. But, to come full circle, in this case the government encouraged companies to publish their research with the promise to protect it. So my only conclusion is, again, to never trust the government.
/rant
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoHow does the knowledge that the USA alone put up $9 billion distributed to seven companies to aid development of the vaccines effect your position, and that the waiver is intended to be only temporary? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/08/08/feds-spending-more-than-9-billion-covid-19-vaccine-candidates/5575206002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/08/08/feds-s... Federal spending on COVID-19 vaccine candidates tops $9 billion, spread among 7 companies
- nickpp 6y agoDepends. Did they put that money through market-approved means, like investments or advance payments for future contracts? Then it's fine. Not different than say Apple helping out one of its suppliers. Did they use some of their other, shady, pork-like ways? Then things are even more murky and muddled and anything is allowed I guess. Lets not forget that the actual market for these vaccines was not free but completely FUBAR: I could not buy one anywhere and at any price.