The solution is not price controls, the solution is to separate research and manufacturing. Have research be non-profit, conducted by charities and governments with the results made available to all.
I fully support the idea of charities and governments funding research... but we already have that. So the only way I can read your comment is that you think everyone else should be prevented from doing research, which seems ridiculous. Why would you want to limit how much research is going on?
There's a lot of misinfo and half truths in there... I'll address some of the bigger ones:
1. Collective bargaining benefits exist in the US also. Insurance companies pay much lower prices than those cited, exactly because of their bargaining power. The costs you're discussing are costs outside of the insurance system, and as such aren't really comparable to anything in nations which control all sale/distribution.
2. Insulin has changed significantly over the years, and the prices for newer products are therefore higher. The newest generation of insulin is far safer and more effective than the stuff being made back in the 1930s. If you want some of the older stuff you can get it way cheaper in many markets.
3. Looking at solely the cost of production and then saying that "a 100% markup is insane" is just ridiculous. There are many other costs associated with these products, not the least of which are regulatory costs, and R&D. Pharmaceutical R&D in particular is insanely expensive. While the costs for R&D on insulin specifically may not be as high as some others, companies use profits from one product to offset general research costs, not just development costs of that one line.
4. I don't think you understand how patents work. You don't get to hang on to a patent for longer just by making small changes. You can probably get a new patent for your changed product, but the old patent will still expire. Once it expires, others are free to copy your old product. The issue in the US is that, if you want to copy an older form of insulin for example, you still have to jump through the regularity hoops to get your product approved for sale by the FDA. You also still have the usual marketing costs to try and make people aware of your cheaper product, AND you'll probably have to work to convince doctors to actually prescribe your cheaper version rather than the better, more expensive product. All of that is going to raise your costs quite a bit higher than just those "production" costs you were talking about earlier. The easiest way to get more generics on the US market would be to get the FDA out of the way by lowering standards or automatically accepting generics which are approved in other markets... but then you're potentially sacrificing safety for speed (see Thalidomide, for example).
All that said, if you think that you can compete by making an older, cheaper form of insulin... what's stopping you? Go fire up a Kickstarter to get some initial funding, get your business set up, and then maybe hit up some of the charitable foundations for funding. If you had a workable plan to bring low cost generic insulin to the US market (and actually succed in selling it) I'm sure you could get plenty of startup funding from, say, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
I hear lots of people like you banging on about the immorality of making money selling medicine, yet none of you seem to be interested in actually doing something about it. The only "solution" you have seems to be price controls, which is wonderful because it allows you to act morally superior without having to actually do anything. Just get the government to fix things for you; that's always the best solution!
I'm not sure what you mean by "legally moderated". US companies have to follow laws. What kind of "legal moderation" is placed on European pharmaceutical companies which isn't placed on American ones? Or, more specifically, which existing European controls are you advocating be brought in for US companies?
It's pretty rare to see "critical thinker/debunker and academic types" even bother addressing flat earth claims, let alone get "pissed off" about it. Some things are just too stupid to be taken seriously. The response to things like 9/11 conspiracy theories or even moon hoax claims has been far stronger. If the goal is to annoy and get a rise out of people, you're far better off focusing on those topics.
Fukushima was four disasters at once and considering the amount of spent fuel rods stored on the site had the potential to be an extinction level event.
This is by far the stupidest thing I have read so far in 2019. You have another 10 months to try and top it, but I doubt that's possible.
What's there to correct; he just made all that shit up. There are no official chamber pressure numbers listed for the RD-181, but it is basically an RD-191 modified for use on the Antares. Since the RD-191 has a chamber pressure of 257.8, the RD-181 should be about the same, putting both of them behind the RD-180.
I did this one time when I was in the US for a few months and needed to drive to a different state for a 4 day long weekend. Renting the car on a per-day basis for 4 days would have cost more than a week-long rental. So I rented it for a week.
I'm sure a lot of things mistify you. If only we had a handy website where you could go and look up the meaning of phrases which you don't understand...
When fuel and maintenance costs are $2,000 less per year than a comparable ICE, the $55k BEV ends up having the same TCO as a $25k ICE after 10 years, and likely has a higher resale value at the end of that term. Only a dumb idiot consumer such as yourself would fail to realize that.
The vast majority of "nasty chemicals" which kill insects are naturally occurring insectides which plants themselves have developed as a defense mechanism. Good luck getting rid of those.
Yeah no shit. I read "insects could disappear" and literally laughed out loud. Anyone who seriously believes such blatant bullshit has definitely been drinking the kool-aid.
That's exactly why I haven't been bothering to actually debate your stupid ass; because it's been clear from your second comment that the only thing you care about is "winning", rather than what's actually true. No honest person would ever say the kind of shit you've been saying. You feel free to go ahead and declare victory; I know you've been itching to do it right from the start.
Hope you're not too attached to those testicles, kiddie diddler.
You have to say how long you're staying, yes, but I don't believe there's anything legally binding about actually sticking to what you tell them. I've done the same; half the time I don't really know how long I'll be staying. I'm pretty sure they only ask in order to make sure you're not planning on staying longer than the allowed maximum.
There are a lot of Canadians who go to Florida, Arizona and such for the winter and overstay their visa.
That would be quite the accomplishment given that they don't actually need a visa to enter the USA.
I suppose that if they stay more than 6 months that would technically make them illegals, regardless of the fact that they didn't need a visa to enter. 6 months is a little longer than just "overstaying the winter" but OK. If you think the number of Canadian retirees illegally hiding out in Florida is even remotely close to the number of illegal Mexicans living in the USA... you're not thinking very clearly.
I've also heard somewhere that Canada is one of the major sources of illegals. The difference is that they are mostly illegal tourists rather then illegal workers so not considered a problem.
You think that Canadians are sneaking illegally over the border... despite being able to enter legally pretty much any time they want to.... and doing it order to go see the statue of liberty?
Best of luck with your reality denial. Maybe you can keep screaming about my supposed racism while they're castrating you to prevent you from abusing any more children. I'm sure it will make you feel much better.
Slashdot Mirror
That very much depends on how they crash.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...
The solution is not price controls, the solution is to separate research and manufacturing.
Have research be non-profit, conducted by charities and governments with the results made available to all.
I fully support the idea of charities and governments funding research ... but we already have that. So the only way I can read your comment is that you think everyone else should be prevented from doing research, which seems ridiculous. Why would you want to limit how much research is going on?
There's a lot of misinfo and half truths in there ... I'll address some of the bigger ones:
1. Collective bargaining benefits exist in the US also. Insurance companies pay much lower prices than those cited, exactly because of their bargaining power. The costs you're discussing are costs outside of the insurance system, and as such aren't really comparable to anything in nations which control all sale/distribution.
2. Insulin has changed significantly over the years, and the prices for newer products are therefore higher. The newest generation of insulin is far safer and more effective than the stuff being made back in the 1930s. If you want some of the older stuff you can get it way cheaper in many markets.
3. Looking at solely the cost of production and then saying that "a 100% markup is insane" is just ridiculous. There are many other costs associated with these products, not the least of which are regulatory costs, and R&D. Pharmaceutical R&D in particular is insanely expensive. While the costs for R&D on insulin specifically may not be as high as some others, companies use profits from one product to offset general research costs, not just development costs of that one line.
4. I don't think you understand how patents work. You don't get to hang on to a patent for longer just by making small changes. You can probably get a new patent for your changed product, but the old patent will still expire. Once it expires, others are free to copy your old product. The issue in the US is that, if you want to copy an older form of insulin for example, you still have to jump through the regularity hoops to get your product approved for sale by the FDA. You also still have the usual marketing costs to try and make people aware of your cheaper product, AND you'll probably have to work to convince doctors to actually prescribe your cheaper version rather than the better, more expensive product. All of that is going to raise your costs quite a bit higher than just those "production" costs you were talking about earlier. The easiest way to get more generics on the US market would be to get the FDA out of the way by lowering standards or automatically accepting generics which are approved in other markets ... but then you're potentially sacrificing safety for speed (see Thalidomide, for example).
All that said, if you think that you can compete by making an older, cheaper form of insulin ... what's stopping you? Go fire up a Kickstarter to get some initial funding, get your business set up, and then maybe hit up some of the charitable foundations for funding. If you had a workable plan to bring low cost generic insulin to the US market (and actually succed in selling it) I'm sure you could get plenty of startup funding from, say, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
I hear lots of people like you banging on about the immorality of making money selling medicine, yet none of you seem to be interested in actually doing something about it. The only "solution" you have seems to be price controls, which is wonderful because it allows you to act morally superior without having to actually do anything. Just get the government to fix things for you; that's always the best solution!
I find that responding with laughter usually works pretty well. The "you mad" types really don't like being laughed at. Makes them pretty mad.
I'm not sure what you mean by "legally moderated". US companies have to follow laws. What kind of "legal moderation" is placed on European pharmaceutical companies which isn't placed on American ones? Or, more specifically, which existing European controls are you advocating be brought in for US companies?
Are you under the delusion that European pharmaceutical companies don't make a profit?
It's pretty rare to see "critical thinker/debunker and academic types" even bother addressing flat earth claims, let alone get "pissed off" about it. Some things are just too stupid to be taken seriously. The response to things like 9/11 conspiracy theories or even moon hoax claims has been far stronger. If the goal is to annoy and get a rise out of people, you're far better off focusing on those topics.
That's an incredibly long way of saying "I have absolutely nothing to support my ridiculous assertion".
Sorry, all I read was "blah blah blah, I'm a dirty tramp".
Fukushima was four disasters at once and considering the amount of spent fuel rods stored on the site had the potential to be an extinction level event.
This is by far the stupidest thing I have read so far in 2019. You have another 10 months to try and top it, but I doubt that's possible.
QED
You know you're a fanatic when a libertarian leaning site consisting mostly of articles written by left-leaning academics looks "far right" to you.
Yep, I forgot that all of slashdots ACs are industry insiders.
What's there to correct; he just made all that shit up. There are no official chamber pressure numbers listed for the RD-181, but it is basically an RD-191 modified for use on the Antares. Since the RD-191 has a chamber pressure of 257.8, the RD-181 should be about the same, putting both of them behind the RD-180.
They typically don't offer 5 day rentals.
I did this one time when I was in the US for a few months and needed to drive to a different state for a 4 day long weekend. Renting the car on a per-day basis for 4 days would have cost more than a week-long rental. So I rented it for a week.
I believe the company was Enterprise, not sure.
Please. It's 2019 and we are all aware of the need for secure passwords. Obviously it would be "Pasword1!".
I'm sure a lot of things mistify you. If only we had a handy website where you could go and look up the meaning of phrases which you don't understand ...
Where are you going 0-60 in 5 seconds, and why?
Anywhere I damn well please, and because I want to.
When fuel and maintenance costs are $2,000 less per year than a comparable ICE, the $55k BEV ends up having the same TCO as a $25k ICE after 10 years, and likely has a higher resale value at the end of that term. Only a dumb idiot consumer such as yourself would fail to realize that.
The vast majority of "nasty chemicals" which kill insects are naturally occurring insectides which plants themselves have developed as a defense mechanism. Good luck getting rid of those.
Yeah no shit. I read "insects could disappear" and literally laughed out loud. Anyone who seriously believes such blatant bullshit has definitely been drinking the kool-aid.
That's exactly why I haven't been bothering to actually debate your stupid ass; because it's been clear from your second comment that the only thing you care about is "winning", rather than what's actually true. No honest person would ever say the kind of shit you've been saying. You feel free to go ahead and declare victory; I know you've been itching to do it right from the start.
Hope you're not too attached to those testicles, kiddie diddler.
You have to say how long you're staying, yes, but I don't believe there's anything legally binding about actually sticking to what you tell them. I've done the same; half the time I don't really know how long I'll be staying. I'm pretty sure they only ask in order to make sure you're not planning on staying longer than the allowed maximum.
There are a lot of Canadians who go to Florida, Arizona and such for the winter and overstay their visa.
That would be quite the accomplishment given that they don't actually need a visa to enter the USA.
I suppose that if they stay more than 6 months that would technically make them illegals, regardless of the fact that they didn't need a visa to enter. 6 months is a little longer than just "overstaying the winter" but OK. If you think the number of Canadian retirees illegally hiding out in Florida is even remotely close to the number of illegal Mexicans living in the USA ... you're not thinking very clearly.
I've also heard somewhere that Canada is one of the major sources of illegals. The difference is that they are mostly illegal tourists rather then illegal workers so not considered a problem.
You think that Canadians are sneaking illegally over the border ... despite being able to enter legally pretty much any time they want to .... and doing it order to go see the statue of liberty?
Seriously?
Words are not actions you ignorant fuck.
Best of luck with your reality denial. Maybe you can keep screaming about my supposed racism while they're castrating you to prevent you from abusing any more children. I'm sure it will make you feel much better.