Re: That paper

["Jonathan Siegel" <JMSiegel.Info.Research@worldnet.att.net>]

Neal Mowery wrote:

> But in John's example of medical care, note that market forces
> encourage supplers to develop drugs with wide applications rather than
> narrow applications.  Implicit in that idea is that the most people will
be
> helped by the market decision rather than by some other decision-making
> method.  Further, due to the potentially higher profits per unit, drugs
that
> save lives (like clot-busters for heart attacks) would be more profitable
> (and more desirable to develop, produce and market) than drugs that cure,
> say, acne.  When combined, we see that drugs that cure the most serious
> illnesses of the largest number of people tend to get the most resources
in
> a market economy.
>
> So the profit motive frequently works in society's favor.

Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry, I must confess I'm not so
sure.

Which is more profitable to produce?

1. A drug that simply relieves sympoms, does nothing for the underlying
condition, must be taken every day for the rest of a person's life, and
ideally creates dependency, or

2. A preventative that can be taken once and will prevent the disease
forever?

It is precisely because of the profit motive that the pharmaceutical
industry spends far more money researching daily pills for things like
hypertension, impotence, and heart disease than for things like vaccines.
And far more is spent on drugs than on nurition.

A firefighter who constantly fights fires can earn a fee on every fire
fought. His work is clearly visible and clearly needed. But how is a fire
preventer -- who doesn't seem to do anything at all and doesn't seem to be
needed at all -- to make a living? That is a question that I don't think the
pure competitive market has ever been able to satisfactorily answer, in the
health industry or elsewhere.

Until it is answered, I think the frank reality of the market is that one
had better take care not to be too successful in ones endeavors if one wants
to be rich. If one wants to be valued as a problem-solver, the one thing one
can had better not do is make problems out-and-out dissappear. They had
better remain just visible enough for people to remember what they're paying
for. Otherwise, one may find oneself penniless.

In a pure competitive market economy, the health care industry depends on
disease for its living.  As long as this is the case, there will be more
money made on hypertension drugs, diabetes pills, and other daily
symptom-relievers than will ever be made on prevention or even cures.

I wish it werent so

Jonathan Siegel