Re: Canadian doctors coming to the US

From: Lictor (ghostmlNOSPAM-REMOVE_at_online.fr)
Date: 08/28/04 

Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 18:16:31 +0200

"George Conklin" <nilknoc@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:zT1Yc.2000$JT3.559@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> In the USA, cars and public transit use about the same amount of fuel
> per passenger mile.

Here, buses burn less fuel per passenger than cars, and they don't run on
petroleum oil anymore. An increasing number of buses run on electricity now,
and most of the rest run on colza oil and the like. This means no greenhouse
effect at least (since burning colza only causes it to release the CO2 it
had caught from the atmosphere, the balance is neutral), even if we do get
some pollution from colza oil and as a byproduct of producing electricity.
Of course, the subway runs on electricity too.
Of course, the electricity eventually comes from nuclear power. But the
choice between having hundreds of cars powered on oil or a single subway
train running on nuclear power is open for discussion.

> Drug ads are not the main issue...merely a side annoyance. But we do
> have the highest prices for drugs in the world. With or without ads,
that
> is still true.
>
> You just made that figure up. Drug companies charge what they can, not
> what something costs.

Yes, I did ;) The point is that the cost of these ads is ultimately paid by
the end user. I'm sure the larger part of the price of your drugs is
actually the mark-up. I mean, these same companies are still making a profit
when they're selling these drugs abroad at a tenth of the price. The problem
is that it is argued that it's a good thing that Americans pay so much,
because it supposedly funds research. But in that case, part of that insane
mark-up is not going to research, it's going to fund ads which spread
mis-information. That's like being ripped-off twice.
But it's true that the root of the problem is that you let the companies
charge what they can, without even trying to lower the costs. Hell, you even
have *laws* banning re-importing drugs from Canada. The nation of Free Trade
has laws that protect a monopole...

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