The short answer is "yes." That answer must be our starting point, from which we then might modify subsequent waypoints in terms of practicality, social contract and so forth.
But if we abandon, from the outset, the concept of a right to personal property, then we jettison all incentives to invent the drug. If no one has incentive to innovate, then there will be no drug to regulate in the first place. To be sure, there wil always be (thank God!) altruistic people who will labor for the common good and claim no reward for themselves, other than the satisfaction of a job well done. But the reality of human nature is that most of us expect to keep and control the fruits of our own labor. The mistake of many social idealists is to assume that the remedy for human "greed" lies in a powerful central government, which will magically not have its own greedy agenda. Whether that agenda be money, power, ideology or something else, government has its own selfish interests which are often contrary to the interests of the population in general. Therefore, the most sensible solution is for society to encode its operating principles in a constitution, with processes for amendment. And then to adhere to that constitution. While imperfect, this idea permits the continuing advancement of society toward a more perfect form. Government by personal opinion of those in power leads simply to tyranny, which then leads eventually to revolt, a period of chaos, and then to an uncertain future in which hopefully, a workable constitution arises once more. On Apr 9, 11:57 am, chazwin <[email protected]> wrote: > How would a Libertarian answer this question??? > > Should a drugs company be free to charge whatever price it likes for > the drugs it has invented regardless of the human harm it could > prevent by making the drugs cheaper? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/epistemology?hl=en.
