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this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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These changes alone (without other major reforms) would be particularly catastrophic in sectors that require large investment over a long period of time. For example, pharmaceuticals typically cost billions and take 10-15 years to develop.
Billions typically paid for by government subsidy, id est taxpayers. I'm not sure what the justification is for private IP rights when the capital is socialized.
i so seldom see anyone actually write out 'id est' instead of 'i.e,' that part of my brain insisted for a solid second that it had to be a typo lol
It's part of how I remember id est versus exempli gratia
Pharmaceuticals is about the worst example you could pick to make a point. It's notorious for socializing the cost and privatizing the profit (not to mention the ethics of price gouging life saving medication treatments).
Here's what Johnson&Johnson is doing right now with a TB drug whose development was paid largely with public funding:
The pharmaceutical companies would definitely not cut back on their profits, so at "best" they would either get public money to make it several times faster, or they would cut back on quality and safety (*lobbies have entered the chat); and in either case the final price would be higher.
There is plenty of room to get worse, even in the current favorable conditions they prioritize known cost-effective palliative treatments over research into expensive solutions that may lead to nothing.
If the entire health sector were public and concerned itself with saving lives instead of making money, it would be a different story, but that is where we get into major reforms.