Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes conservatives cry.

11 thoughts on “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes conservatives cry.”

1. I have no problem with ethical capitalism, you want to make money making a movie, a videogame, or some other form of non-essential entertainment or expendable income type product? Then that’s cool with me.

   I completely disagree with any industry where the cost of the good or service directly impacts whether someone lives or dies though. I don’t think you have to have a panacea of one policy or another for every single thing in society.

   If Disney or Warner Bros want to be a public company on the exchange, then fine. I think there should be standards and protections depending on what the industry is though. Research and development would be just fine giving grants to Universities and non-profits. Why is it mandatory in society that Merck and other pharmaceutical or insurance companies be for-profit and their executives are compensated ridiculous amounts?

   There’s sure as hell a lot of range to work with between:

   1 – “Got mine with more resources than I’ll ever need, fuck everyone else up to including death”
   2 – “Make every single aspect of society even, regardless of being a CEO or working at McDonald’s.”

   It’s sad every libertarian or wealthy person has to get a persecution complex over questioning these decisions. There’s virtually no empathy for anyone once these sociopaths get this high up.

2. The US consumer does pay most of the R&D since it is largely financed through government grants and subsidies.

3. What is lost here is

   If the numbers are correct, Gilead is making $1992 more profit in the US than Australia on the sale of the hiv drug. So the US subsidises the Australia drug price. That’s what should make Roy cry.

   1. That’s not lost, it was never found. Aussies pay full price for the drug. Americans pay full price plus $1992, which goes in Gilead’s pocket. We’re not subsidizing Australia, we’re being gouged by a company.
      Roy sees this as the proper functioning of the market, he only cries if someone tries to change it.

      1. That’s all speculation. Without studying their books I can’t really tell you what the true mark-up on the drug is. It’s possible that a dose can be created in the lab for twenty cents, in which case even the $8 price generates a vast gross profit. Or maybe the drug’s true cost, including a pro-rated share of all expenses, is more than $8, and the company would operate at a loss, and have to abandon future research, if forced to sell for $8 everywhere, including the USA.

         In that latter case the US consumer would be paying for 100% of the R&D, therefore literally providing the world with medicine.

         I don’t know how countries with regulated prices determine those prices. How do countries like Australia and Canada determine that $8 is the fair market price, as opposed to $3 or $20. Do the pharma companies open up their books for this process? If such info is available, I’d love to crack open their P&L and have a look.

         1. Worse than speculation, it’s an assumption. But a reasonable one I think, knowing how the Martin Shkrelis of the world operate. Rick (below) is right: the taxpayer funds nearly all drug research, both directly through research grants and indirectly through corporate welfare to companies.
            Pharma outfits love to bang on about how expensive research is, but their profits (sales minus overhead, material costs, etc. and research) keep going up. This is a result of medicine being treated as a market commodity.

4. I regard AOC and Elizabeth Warren the same as I regard Marx and Engels: a lot of valid criticism of the system, not necessarily much in the way of suggesting practical alternatives.

   1. The other side, represented by Chip Roy, is absolutely ridiculous though: any criticism of private enterprise must mean you hate everything about it. AOC and Elizabeth Warren point out a lot of (mostly) valid criticisms but generally have unrealistic alternatives, Chip Roy and his side, on the other hand, engage in demagoguery by presenting a false binary.

      For those interested in a more thoughtful discussion of realistic alternatives, the general economics term for the issues AOC raises are called ‘market failures.’ There are many proposed solutions to each market failure (or to each type of market failure) but the most practical ones tend to acknowledge that they aren’t perfect solutions either.

5. Profit is the only god of the wealthiest 0.01% of America. They are the people who own the Republican Party. It is not surprising that their lackeys ape their masters.

   1. I’ve always wonder how they reconciled claiming to be Christian knowing full well the quote from Jesus about the eye of a needle and the rich man getting into heaven.

      Maybe they should consider it a favor to put limits on their wealth and power, it would help their chances!

6. How much money does Roy get under the table?

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