[SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Sat, Apr 07, 2001 at 12:41:52AM +0200, Stefan Skoglund wrote:
> Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> > Americans aren't wasteful, we produce a lot of the things the world
> > needs, and then rips off from us (like drugs that cost $100 million to
> > develop, then some Indian company produces it for 50 cents a pill and
> 
> What kind of drugs are you thinking of per-chance ??
> AIDS suppression drugs maybe ??
> Or malaria pills ??

Maybe both, or maybe just Viagra.  I think the particular kind of drug I was
talking about has no bearing on the question of whether people are being
ripped off by overseas knockoffs.

> Remember that a number of countries in Africa is really exposed to AIDS.

True, yes, it does affect a lot of people in Africa.

> 10 % percents of Ungandians is HIV positive and if they dont get access
> to drugs at a fair price there economy will crash because well not
> enough
> people will produce enough cloth or for that thing enough FOOD !!

What is a fair price?  Who determines it? And if the drug was not developed
in the first place (because someone investing their money does think that
they will get a return on their investment), would not the Ugandans still die?

> The current prices on AIDS medicines is obscene and nothing ELSE because
> thoose who needs it the most can't pay the asking price.

I don't believe that YOUR need justifies stealing from ME, when you have no
rightful claim on my work.

> It is capitalism at its worst !

If you can't buy the product, then no-one can make money on it!  Thus it
can't be capitalism at all...

What *ACTUALLY* happens is that Americans end up paying the highest prices
in the world for some drugs, because the USA is one of the few places that
respects intellectual property.  

Other countries, including Canada, make the drug companies sell at a lower
price than the market will bear, or don't even recognize copyright or
patents to begin with.

So poor Ugandans get their AIDS drugs, but poor Americans don't.  How
exactly is this compassionate?!?

ObRescue:  many drug companies use Suns for their computational, database,
and testing needs.  

Cordially

Patrick Giagnocavo
patrick at zill.net