|
The problem with this analysis, Harry, is
that patents ARE controlled by the ‘free market’, that is, by
companies who assert the very patent right as a condition of their release of
the product. Further, it is those very companies that lobby Washington to keep
foreign manufacturers out. So the bottom line is that consumers are screwed,
and your fall-back position – that consumers can always vote with their wallets
– is not available. The REAL ‘free-market’ allows
these monopolistic activities. I don’t think you can have your cake
(low prices, good quality) and eat it (shrug at the reality of monopolies),
too. As for your question about my support for
monopolies, I will suggest that your rhetorical flourishes generously exceed
your logic. Colourful, but not enlightening. Cheers, Lawry From: Harry Pollard
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lawry, old lad, Almost always a critique of the free market process uses an example
that is as far from being a market as you can get. The drug monopoly simply wallows in government privileges. Patents come first and the drug companies patent practically every
combination of chemicals they can – in case something useful will be
found for it. (Patents are not completely necessary. Even when a patent
finishes, it is possible to tie up competing generic production using
government regulations.) Imports of competing drugs are kept out of the country and away from
the market. The cost of putting a new drug through the FDA system is so high (some
hundreds of thousand of dollars) that small firms cannot afford it, so they
have to go through the big companies. Bush will manage to reduce drug prices with his upcoming policy.
He’ll do it by using our tax money to subsidize the high cost. In this
way we’ll get “cheaper” drugs, while the drug companies will
get their outrageous monopoly prices. Taking profits and losses into account, this is why the top ten drug
companies in the Fortune 500 make more profit than the other 490 companies
combined. This is why they fight against a free market. And why I welcome you to the advocacy of a free market – the best
way to cut these damned monopolies down to size. Or, are you on the side of the monopolists? Harry ******************************* of 818 352-4141 ******************************* From: Lawrence
deBivort [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Nonsense, Harry. You said: You mean the
market simply obeyed the instructions of the people. The people didn’t
want the things you think they should want (and would force them to if you
could). You should come to the Lawry: For example: |
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
