5 ms·
Sure, big pharma over does it sometimes but remember that people truly need these drugs sometimes and they are prescribed by well intentioned doctors. I don't
by d0gsg0w00f 5y ago
Sure, big pharma over does it sometimes but remember that people truly need these drugs sometimes and they are prescribed by well intentioned doctors.
I don't think you can compare a legitimate business publishing public accounting figures, operating within the law, subject to policy by elected officials with the illicit drug trade who's supply chains operate in the dark. These supply chains are probably responsible for thousands of deaths, human trafficking, and unfathomable suffering whose actors you have no possible way of mitigating their actions.
I grow weary of hearing this recurring argument that the relatively minor side effects of a free market being compared to pure evil.
- imnotlost 5y agoRe. big pharma, imagine how weary the roughly 400k families of people who dies feel. "Three major drug distributors and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have agreed to a $26 billion settlement with states to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the country's opioid crisis, officials announced Wednesday." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/4-companies-near-26-billion-settlement-resolve-opioid-lawsuits-n1274520 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/4-companies-near-26-bil... None of these executives were anonymous or ever had to be. They made a ton of money doing bad things, they'll keep most of the money and they'll never go to prison. They way you deal with this is, obviously in my mind, through the rule of law and a robust functioning society that regulates commerce. Not wild-west free market.
- d0gsg0w00f 5y agoIn that vein you have to also prosecute alcohol distilleries, tobacco companies, fast food companies, casinos, lotto companies, ice cream makers, and any other company that makes something that people struggle to control their own consumption. And we do, that's why we have government. At least you have a recourse when these companies operate within the law.
- maccolgan 5y agoGood Lord, we'll have to sacrifice Google, Facebook and Microsoft (and probably the two As) to the Gods, I'm fairly sure Facebook is certainly worse than fast food companies.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- panta 5y agoThere are some important differences. Alcohol distilleries didn't label/market their products as beneficial ailments intended to cure diseases. Pharmaceutical companies should be bound, at least morally, by the same hippocratic oath that govern the medical profession. Clearly they are not.