Re: OT: oil profits

On Tue, 6 May 2008 12:22:00 -0400, "Fred Burton" <fburton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


"McDuck" <wallyDELETEMEMcDuck@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pqun14906ddgmas5985712ntobrd2v2hj9@xxxxxxxxxx



If you're going to bash bush about spending, it should be on that bogus
prescription drug benefit. Just another pile of money pissed down a
rathole.


I was not bashing Bush --- just noting that he chose not to cut
spending but instead increased spending on his favored programs.

A "rathole"? Helping people pay for costly medicines is throwing money
down a rathole? Fine to oppose the Medicare D program --- lots to
debate about how to deal with the artificially high drug costs in the
US. But helping people in need is not "throwing" or "pissing" money
down a rathole.

Drug prices are "artificially high" in the US due to the undercutting of
legitimate free market prices in countries with Socialist medicine. In
essence, the Socialized medicine countries are pulling their fair share
of the price load for drug costs, and the drug companies are force to
make up those losses by shifting them onto the American consumer.

If you want to blame somebody, blame the Socialized medicine countries.

I was not blaming anyone. You said it was a waste of money to help
people in need pay for their prescription drugs.

Your idea of markets is pretty funny. Prices are supposed to be set by
supply and demand in a free market. The drug policies of countries
like canada have nothing to do with supply or demand in the US, as far
as I can see.

Now, I have heard the propaganda you repeat. But think about it? What
is Canada doing that messes up prices? It has a one-pay system for
medical insurance, which, according to theory and practice, is
efficient in providing universal care. That it may keep drug companies
from getting as high a price s they would like has no bearing on the
US prices. Do you really think that the drug companies would over
their US prices if they were able to charge higher prices in some
other country?

<snip>

Same with the government when it charges a "fee" for participating in
the economy. You earn income in a country subject to the prior claim
of the people (through their government) to a share of the income you
earn from making use of the markets and infrastructure and other
income-producing opportunities. If I charge too much at my fair, then
people who don't want to pay don't have to --- they can go somewhere
else to sell their goods. Similarly, if rich people are not happy
paying the "fee" charged by the people for use of the US market, they
can avoid paying it by giving up their citizenship and earning their
income somewhere else. Citizenship involves certain obligations, one
of which is to pay the taxes lawfully imposed whether or not you like
paying them.


Citizenship does not "obligate" people to be economically descriminated
against by people like you!!!

True enough. Nor do I have the power to discriminate against rich
people. But people are obliged to obey the laws of the country they
choose to live in, and making rich people pay at a higher rate than
middle class people is not economic discrimination any more than
allowing rich people to make more money than other people is not
economic descrimination.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Medicare Part D government drug negotiations - Dems in trouble?
    ... On drug prices, ... Medicare prescription plans, Democrats say they have a solution: ...
    (talk.politics.misc)
  • Re: Sicko
    ... The USA spends more than all of Europe on drug R&D ... On the contrary, audited financial reports of major drug firms in the UK, ... based solely on domestic sales at British prices (Pharmaceutical Price ... some countries having a more rapid increase than the U.S. (Patented Medicine ...
    (rec.gambling.poker)
  • Re: big pharma strikes again
    ... Even as drug makers promise to support Washington's health care ... the industry has been raising ... its prices at the fastest rate in years. ... the name-brand drugs most widely used by the Medicare population ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: OFF TOPIC! FYI
    ... People negotiate every day over prices to be paid for patented ... Canadian courts, we have a common root in the British legal system, ... the drug companies that they would pay X or the Canadian government ... Canada’s federal PMPRB regulates the maximum prices that can be charged for patented drugs; no such regulations exist in the United States. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)
  • Re: OT: oil profits
    ... prescription drug benefit. ... A "rathole"? ... legitimate free market prices in countries with Socialist medicine. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)