March 24, 2020

The Real Price Gougers




When corporate bigwigs raise the prices of things for no reason other than greed, they are doing their jobs. That is the system we live in, and no one says much about it since it increases the GDP, and makes billionaires like clouds make raindrops.

A common business adage is that a good capitalist will charge as much for a product as the consumer will bear. 

However, when one of the little people feels like being enterprising and taking advantage of the "freedom of the marketplace" and "supply and demand economics", all hell breaks loose.

$400.00 dollar hand sanitizer is likely to get a small business person scathing judgements and death threats, even though customers may still be buying at that price. 

Price gouging is considered unethical, and for good reasons. But only when the little people do it.

Drug companies are only one area notorious for unethical practices. Reading the following list it is obvious that price gouging is taking place, and people are paying with their lives.


  • The cost of Bavencio, a new cancer drug approved in March, is about $156,000 a year per patient.
  • A new muscular dystrophy drug came on the market late last year for an eye-popping price of $300,000 annually.
  • In 2016, the FDA appproved Tecentriq, a new bladder cancer treatment that costs $12,500 a month, or $150,000 a year. 
  • Even older drugs that have long been on the market are not immune: The cost of insulin tripled between 2002 and 2013, despite no notable changes in the formulation or manufacturing process. 
  • The four-decade-old EpiPen, a lifesaving allergy medication, has seen a price hike of 500 percent since 2007.                               - AARP Bulletin 


If Handwash Guy can't get away with earning a few thousand reselling his product, how does Big Drug get away with it?

“The simple answer is because there’s nothing stopping them,” said Leigh Purvis, a health services researcher.

So what other price gouging is taking place, since in the land of extreme capitalism there is nothing, legislation or morals, to stop them? 

Gas? Housing? Food? Internet access? Health care? 

Everything?

And isn't capitalism itself about to price gouge all of us to the tune of several trillion dollars over the next few days?

It is obvious who the real price gougers are. 

Get ready to be gouged again.




6 comments:

  1. Anonymous3/24/2020

    Big pharma has got a lot to answer for. There are so many tricks of the trade when comes to drug trials such as testing on patients who are not as sick as the norm, thus increasing survival rates to taking people off an existing antidepressant who are then going through withdrawal and putting them in the control group. Choice of assessment tools are important such as choosing Hamilton over Beck Depression Index to manipulate studies.
    Unflattering trials are simply buried thus distorting systematic reviews. There is an ocean of unpublished data out there.
    Check out this funny lecture on the DSM:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JPgpasgueQ

    Bad Pharma is also a brilliant read along with A Anatomy of an Epidemic.
    This con is as big as the banking crisis.

    Peace,
    Alex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda has been on Bad Pharma drugs for her MS, but no more. Even though they cost health care systems many billions of dollars (about $30,000 per year per patient), they have not been shown to achieve the most important thing which is delay of disease progression. Basically, they don't work.

      Thank you for the excellent references. Hope you are well.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous3/27/2020

    Hi,

    Sadly they do not have a great evidence base and some are expensive relaunches of cancer drugs such as alemtuzumab. I still think Dr McDougall provides the most honest approach and treatment strategy. When looking at nature you would need something that could promote myelin sheath growth, fungus with the mycelium could be an idea and out of all that kingdom - the Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) would be the most promising.
    Remember to avoid all animal proteins that include egg - this is not about veganism - a person's immune system can become sensitised and trigger a immune response which also attacks the body due to the presence of alien proteins in the blood stream.
    I'm well and just watching the UK governments bizarre handling of the coronavirus, people seem to think that epidemiology is a pure science and don't question modelling. The world's most powerful computer would struggle to model a drip of water.
    Peace,
    Alex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the vital information. We eat a diet that closely approximates that of Dr. Mc Dougall. Diet is everything. Very interesting about that particular fungus promoting nerve regeneration and myelin growth.

      Delete
  3. Eggs are wonderful.We have 12 hens. My wife and i have an 800 sq. ft garden. We make our own wine and beer and have a 3 month supply of food. We also love and voted for bad orange man in 2016 and will vote for him in 2020. Old enough me(68) her (70)to realize the BS of collectives.We love freedom and can't stand the MSM BS artists like Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon.We always taught our kids to think critically and think for themselves. They skipped the disaster of college and went on to be people who are skilled at making things. See Mike Rowe. I hope this does not destroy your narrative. We are simple people too but don't like the left or the right telling us what to think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. My narrative is "simple living for all - left, right, centre, anarchist, black, white, orange, green, builders, thinkers, vegans, egg eaters, individualists, and the communal'. Your comment supports what I am saying - there are as many ways to live simply as there are people. No one can tell you how to do your particular brand. That is what I like about it.

      To be simple living it has to be voluntary, and so is based on freedom of choice, something everyone should have. Since the system does not support people living simple, self-sufficient lives, you have to be able to take care of yourself.

      Sometimes you will have to think and reflect, and at others, make things. Sometimes you have to do them simultaneously. They are not mutually exclusive, nor is one 'better' than another.

      Considering your lifestyle, I am surprised you vote for anyone. Why bother? Thinking for ones self would surely lead to the conclusion that the problems we have will not be solved by voting. If they could, they would outlaw elections. Plus, who votes, but the collective?

      Delete

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