Re: Kimmage: OUCH

"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote in message
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"Mike Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote in message
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By all means explain why the USA should provide all of the research
funding for a disease that is predominantly in the third world where
it is almost impossible to treat?

Perhaps because it's a huge source of profits for American drug
companies?

Here's a bit of information Mike - medicine dispursed to the third
world is usually donated by the drug companies or various charities.
Almost no profit is made from it.

If there were huge profits to be made from providing clean water
(something the Gates foundation has shown would save one heck of a
lot of lives at pretty moderate cost), it would suddenly become a
priority for research funding as well, even though it's a problem, as
you say, "predominantly in the third world" (but fortunately not
difficult, compared to most other causes of death & suffering, to
treat).

Mike, don't show that you haven't thought about what you're writing.
Clean water is one of the hardest and most expensive things to
provide. That's why countries take our charity and never bother to put
in clean water facilities of their own.

AIDS deserves the funding it gets, just as Cancer research does, and
many other sources of suffering & death. But for the most part,
funding is going to be driven by potential corporate profits, an
ability to strike deep fear into the population at large, and, to a
lesser extent, an ability to actually achieve results.

Sorry Mike but that's BS. When funds are limited, and ALL CHARITY IS,
then you have to prioritize things. The smart way to prioritize is to
put the most money behind those things that will help the most people
being supplying the cash in the first place.


I'm not sure what you're saying, but you didn't take much effort to
understand the points I was trying to make. Far as I know, I said
nothing about drug companies profiting from distribution in 3rd-world
countries. Did I? Nope. Just re-read what I wrote. Nothing about making
money off the 3rd-world.

Because they don't have to.

They make all the money they need right here, at home. So much money
that they can easily afford the marginal cost of actually producing
extra pills for those who cannot afford to pay for them. So I suppose
you could make an argument that our healthcare system is subsidizing
much of the 3rd world's healthcare. In exchange, we get their minerals,
cheap production, and down the road, emerging markets.

When the 3rd world can afford to pay for the niceties of modern
healthcare, I'm sure we'll have many companies happy to sell to them.
But for the time being, we're more likely to see American drug companies
donating product (drugs) that have extremely low marginal production
costs (actual cost of materials & fabrication) than we are the dollars
needed for infrastructural improvement. Because donating items that have
extremely-low marginal cost doesn't adversely effect the bottom line
(except through accounting practices used to lower taxes).

As for donating $$$ for clean water facilities that don't get built,
yes, corruption is everywhere you look. In all likelihood such funds are
still coming back to companies in the US though, through defense
contractors.

Charity? It's all about us. I mean, U.S. That's not to say that drug
companies are totally heartless and don't care about human misery. It's
just that they've learned how to most-effectively profit from it. That's
good business. Seriously.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


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