So What Does Socialism Do?
Socialism is the form of government where the taxes of people pay for various facilities and services that the people of that country universally prefer government to take care of. For instance, the government pays for education. That’s socialism. The government pay for the military. That’s socialism. Of course, in some countries, the government uses the taxes of the people to pay for other things - like medical, infrastructure like roads, rail, dams, bridges, water, electricity, communications (phone), etc.
There are various forms of socialism as well. In some countries, the government might pay the capital expenses - like footing the bill for a nuclear power station but charging for the services so that it recoups its initial payment and, because the government isn’t out to make a profit, it provides cheap energy for the people.
Radical Example of Deadly Exchange - Pharmaceutical Corporations
According to the September 3rd, 2012 copy of Newsweek, cancer drugs do not work to save life. They merely prolong life for an average of four months. However, the biggest cost of the medical bill in the United States are these drugs. For instance, Yervoy costs $120,0
00 for four injections. Get that! $120,000 for four injections. There’s nothing on this earth that is that valuable, never mind a bit of liquid that keeps one alive for four more months. Avastin, which increases the lifespan of colon cancer patients by five months, costs $10,000 per month. Lung cancer treatments cost between $6000 and $10,000 per month.
Newsweek quotes Dr. Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York as saying “There is no such thing as a cancer drug coming on the market that is some sort of regular drug price.”
So what’s up?
Unfair Exchange: Five More Months of Life in Return for Billions of Dollars!
The real issue over here is the one of the most unethical and deadly methods of profit since pirates hijacked ships three hundred years ago and/or conquerors of old ransacked cities, pillaged, raped and killed its occupants, and then took their possessions. Yes, it’s that bad.
In 2004, there was some study of just exactly how much it costs to develop these drugs. This was because whenever it was asked why these drugs cost so much, the drugs would respond saying that it was a combination of reasons: the cost of research, saving money for future research, and the value to the patient.”
The study revealed that there was no possible connection to what the actual research cost and the price of the drugs. So what was the real reason? ‘The value to the patient and ‘the scientific innovation they represent.’
Um, run that by me again.
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| http://medsdebate.com/lib/discount-drugs-resources/ |
You heard right - The Value to the Patient!
In other words, pharmaceutical companies are not relating the cost of the research and production of the drugs. No, they’re relating it to how much the dying would be willing to pay to stay alive for a few extra months. And the victim of these payments are the insurance companies and the medical fraternity in general.
Donating to Cancer Research
One of the reasons I consistently refuse to donate to any form of cancer research is it is throwing good money after bad. Very little headway has been made in cancer research during the past twenty or thirty years. Why would anyone want a killer cure when they’re making that kind of money and they have a captive market?
Pharmaceutical CEO Salaries
So let’s look at what the profit buys in terms of salary, and do remember that you can determine that amount of profit a company is making by the salaries it pays its CEO and executive staff.
Johnson & Johnson CEO - $26.7 million for 2011
Pfizer CEO - $25 million for 2011
Abbot Laboratories - $24 million for 2011
Mylan - $21 million for 2011
Now let’s look at the salaries your lowly pharmaceutical reps are earning. Bearing in mind that the average rep earns between $40,000 and $120,000 (depending on the product), pharmaceutical reps take home anything between $65,000 to $200,000 per year.
I’m not even going to go into what shareholders, board members, the CFO, administrative staff, and others are earning. Let’s just say that they’re all doing very nicely, thank you. At the expense of other people’s lives.
They are, in short, holding the medical fraternity and the lives of the population over a barrel. Either pay up or die!
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| http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/p/pharmaceutical_company.asp |
Here’s a Better Deal - Research Backed by the Government
So let’s cut the crap. This is not a system that works for to the greater good. In this case, profits work to the detriment of humanity. This is where the ‘profit for the greater good’ falls short. In the words of a doctor (quoted from the Newsweek article) “We are always paying for a Ferrari but often getting a Ford.” To quote further from the Newsweek article, “...we are seeing very high cost for relatively little return in patient benefit and survival.”
It’s time we changed our model. I would suggest the following.
- Our taxes fund increased research at all universities
- The research results are documented on a month basis for all to see and ego of individual scientists be damned.
- The end results of the research can be used by anyone to reproduce provided they have the right equipment.
I can give you a 100% guarantee that within a few years, scientists will begin to focus on lifestyle disease and reveal - again - that 95% of cancers are caused by lifestyle factors and that no drug on earth can fix it up until the lifestyle changes. Worse news, if the lifestyle changes too late, then the person is going to die. That’s it. I can also guarantee that the price of pharmaceuticals will fall to such a degree that the average person can afford them and that more progress will be made.
So shoot me if I tell you that profit in the hands of the greedy is a deadly weapon and that practical socialism is a helluve lot better deal.
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