I must clarify that the intent here is not to criticize. CEOs and politicians are intelligent people making difficult choices - they are speaking the minds of the people they represent. I think in the long run the morality of corporations or nations or any collective tends to represent the average morality of the people who make it up.
Any examination of such matters needs to look at the larger morality, and understand why our leaders time and again get sucked into narrow views of self interest. On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan <[email protected]> wrote: > "Bayer CEO: We made medicine for people who can afford it, not Indians" > > I don't think vilification serves any purpose. > > On the one hand, Bayer makes life saving drugs, very good; but on the > other hand it intends to only sell it only to the rich; not so good. > > Historically speaking this has been something of a pattern, not just > with Bayer but most corporations. > > Bayer as IG Farben made the gas Zyklon-B used in the gas chambers of > Auschwitz. Then the world learned its lesson and Bayer instead used > the same skills to make sprays that kill bugs. Crop protection in > other words. > > So has Bayer saved more people than it has killed? Is Bayer any > different from the world of profit and self interest it lives in? > > Does all the technology we have today save more lives than it kills? > Interesting point of contemplation. > > A look at population numbers would say yes. But then quality of life > indicators - and not just material quality, but indicators that take > into account mental illness, loneliness, depression and so on give a > very mixed reading. > > We are certainly successful at keeping human beings alive; but we are > not yet successful at making them happy in my opinion. > > http://keionline.org/node/1910 > http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1vyyww/we_did_not_develop_this_medicine_for_indianswe/ > http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-21/merck-to-bristol-myers-face-more-threats-on-india-drug-patents
