Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Because my response was exactly that, so what. You have to demonstrate that hurting profitability is a bad thing for US society. It is possible, see Viscusi et al., to over protect. And it's my contention, admittedly without support, that we overspend on healthcare and therefore create incentives for overinvestment in health care R&D. So, if you lower the profits drug cos. make, just possibly you're reducing the amount of R&D to the socially optimal level.
|
I now understand your point. You are saying that R&D costs are too high because of the monopoly pricing, or in other words, that there is a lot of fluff in R&D because of the monopoly pricing. This raises a very important philosophical point that gets at the heart of the issue - who is to decide how much R&D/profit is too much? I am far more comfortable with each enterprise making that determination based on market incentives that the decision be regulated by the government.
