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I wonder why we don't fund drug development directly, using tax money and then let companies produce the drugs for a reasonable fee. I feel like drug developmen
by adrianN 5y ago
I wonder why we don't fund drug development directly, using tax money and then let companies produce the drugs for a reasonable fee. I feel like drug development shouldn't be prioritized by the estimated amount of profit one can get from the drug.
- nradov 5y agoIs there reason to think that government bureaucrats would do a better job at efficient resource allocation? I expect they would channel funding based on politics with little regard for outcomes.
- adrianN 5y agoIs there a reason to think that government bureaucrats would do a worse job? I mean, generally I trust the government to run things like building roads, or taking care of security and education reasonably well. At least as well as a private organization would. "Efficient" resource allocation strongly depends on your performance measure. I don't think that "maximize shareholder value" is necessarily the best measure to use for healthcare.
- amelius 5y ago> Is there reason to think that government bureaucrats would do a better job at efficient resource allocation? Yes. Government institutions (academia, DARPA, CERN, etc.) created the original internet! And then companies messed it up.