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Think of how dead they would be if the insulin didn't exist. The part of the topic of insulin relevant to a discussion of trickle down economics is whether the
by nrdvana 5y ago
Think of how dead they would be if the insulin didn't exist. The part of the topic of insulin relevant to a discussion of trickle down economics is whether the insulin could have been researched and invented without letting people become wealthy profiting off of it. The monopoly on insulin that happened recently is one of the evil tendencies of capitalism that needs curtailed with laws, but unrelated to supply-side economics.
In the case of insulin, it was in fact invented with nothing more than research grants and the promise of fame and nobel prizes. But it also took 30 years from the first hints of what might solve diabetes until they produced a drug for it. It's an open question whether that could have happened faster with a profit-motivated company pushing the research.
- Spooky23 5y agoI think insulin is yet another great example of why trickle down theories are bunk. Our economic policy for decades has been mostly centered around pumping capital into markets to prop them up or grow them. The problem is there’s too much money pursuing too little novel work. Ironically, making billions of “surplus” dollars available to big companies drives lots of little command economies, not healthy markets. It makes more sense to corner the market on insulin or some foot fungus cream and rip people off than to create a new or improved product. There is very low R&D at improving anything associated with insulin because of rent seeking behaviors. Profits don’t motivate research. Market activity does. I hope we learn from the successful aspects of COVID and pump money at people to make economic decisions for themselves.
- coredog64 5y agoAs I noted upthread, the expensive insulin is a new and improved product that was generated via R&D.