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March 16, 2005
And These Cannibals..
..get just what they deserve
One day it's gonna be your own neck gettin' served
This is part of a section that got cut from a piece that I've just finished -may find a home in another place, perhaps a fun little rant on the extreme left that's in the cue right now.
The line is in reference to a bizarre phenomenon in business where people who have gotten filthy rich thanks to the free-market decide they might get just a little richer if they can get the government to open up their markets for them, usually in the form of some sweet subsidy, tariff, or, if they're really hungry, a whole new...
....government entitlement. This is precisely the case with the Prescription Drug Benefit that was added last year to an already bloated Medicare (literally now costing 10 times what was projected at its inception). Back when this was passed, I wrote this letter to the New York Times:
Re: Congress Strikes a Tentative Deal on Drug Benefits (front page, Oct. 23)
With the passage of an outrageous new drug entitlement bill, it is only a matter of time before legislators will be calling for price controls on prescription drugs to stem the increase in spending that such programs invariably necessitate. This, along with price controls abroad and reimportation, represents an increasingly prevalent trend: the use of government to force drug producers into the role of serfs, with no right to make a profit, but every duty to provide lifesaving drugs for anyone who needs them. Those in the pharmaceutical industry should defend their moral right to trade freely with others on mutual terms and to mutual benefit, to profit from the immeasurable benefits of the treatments they provide. The thuggish policies gaining acceptance in government dealings with the drug industry are sure to drive out the best and brightest minds, and lead to stagnation where innovation has been the rule.
But most remarkable to me in this story is that most of the big drug companies- including the one I work for- actually support this madness. They really think it's practical to bring force into the equation if it brings them short-term profit. They actually believe that they will somehow be immune to the jauggernaut of governemnt pragmatism when it comes time to reign in the cost of these free-for-alls (free for all but those who have to pay for it). This is one of the reasons I am trying to get out of the drug industry, not so much because I feel guilty about contributing to this lunacy, but because I don't see a future in it- I see it as stagnating more and more as the industry gets cozier and cozier with the thugs in congress. As my friend Isaac likes to say, nature, she is just.
Posted by exaltron at March 16, 2005 06:33 PM
Comments
This worries me too -- that eventually there will be enough price controls and restrictions on what one may and may not say in an advertisement that there will be no need for a medical copywriter like me. At the same time as our bloated system has created a ton of jobs that wouldn't exist in a free market (for example, there wouldn't need to be a person whose sole job was to review the content of advertisements to see whether they conform to FDA regulations, though a similar position in a reduced capacity might exist in that someone might review pieces to see that they don't contain actually false claims that would open the company up to a legitimate fraud lawsuit), it will also eventually choke off industry growth if things continue along this path. Perhaps I will make my career in crossword puzzles after all :-)
You and I should talk more about the pharm industry, I think. I'm not planning on having my next big shindig until my birthday in June, but I may want to cook dinner for the Objectivist Five (you, me, Dave, Lou, and Nancy) in the next couple of weeks. You interested?
Posted by: Stella at April 1, 2005 04:25 PM
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