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Rwanda makes its own morphine while U.S. awash with opioids:
It was something, the silence. Nothing but the puff of her breath and the scuff of her slip-on shoes as Madeleine Mukantagara walked through the fields to her first patient of the day. Piercing cries once echoed down the hill to the road below. What she carried in her bag had calmed them.
For 15 years, her patient Vestine Uwizeyimana had been in unrelenting pain as disease wore away at her spine. She could no longer walk and could barely turn over in bed. Her life narrowed to a small, dark room with a dirt-floor in rural Rwanda, prayer beads hanging on the wall by her side.
A year ago, relief came in the form of liquid morphine, locally produced as part of Rwanda's groundbreaking effort to address one of the world's great inequities: As thousands die from addiction in rich countries awash with prescription painkillers, millions of people writhe in agony in the poorest nations with no access to opioids at all.
Companies don't make money selling cheap, generic morphine to the poor and dying, and most people in sub-Saharan Africa cannot afford the expensive formulations like oxycodone and fentanyl, prescribed so abundantly in richer nations that thousands became addicted to them.
Rwanda's answer: plastic bottles of morphine, produced for pennies and delivered to homes across the country by community health workers like Mukantagara. It is proof, advocates say, that the opioid trade doesn't have to be guided by how much money can be made.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by krishnoid on Monday December 30 2019, @10:37PM (47 children)
Sure, after you disintermediate raw capitalism out from between care-of-health and profit/ability. Then that principle applies to a lot of stuff.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @02:27AM (45 children)
Newp, sorry, this ain't on capitalism. The only reason big pharma has a chokehold on prices, or even exists in the first place, is because the government has passed laws guaranteeing them monopoly powers and making it extremely expensive and legally complex to compete with them after those monopoly powers expire. Were either of those not the case, most medicines would be dirt cheap within five years of the patents expiring. Government choosing who wins and loses is not an aspect of capitalism.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:09AM (12 children)
It's certainly not solely on Capitalism, probably not even mostly, but there are a number of dirty tricks applied on top of the ill-thought regulations that make the problem much worse.
But uit seems even the Libertarians seem to have all but given up on dismantling any of that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:31AM
Nah, there just ain't very many of us around lately. We sat on our asses too long letting both parties trade us comfort for our liberties, so we have a lot of unfucking to do in the population before we can do much fixing in the government.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:09AM (10 children)
It's not capitalism at fault here. It's odd how capitalism gets blamed for deliberate breaking of it.
"Seems" to who? Are you demanding that we (temporarily putting myself in the Libertarian camp for rhetorical purposes) rule you with no-doubt benevolent tyranny?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday December 31 2019, @09:08AM (9 children)
Seems to me. I haven't heard anything from a Libertarian candidate about abolishing the FDA, prescription laws, controlled substances, etc other than marijuana in a long time. Some libertarians (small L), yes, but not the party.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 31 2019, @09:38AM
The L party is busy failing at trying to get attention. The media is an impenetrable barrier. Even YouTube is no good anymore. They will languish forever unless a miracle happens.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @02:05PM (7 children)
So what? Do you have some perception of Libertarians that is relevant to this thread? Seems to me that you don't.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday December 31 2019, @07:11PM (6 children)
Yes, I do. I have a perception of the offers on the table for representatives in the federal government.
If you know otherwise, perhaps offer it up rather than telling me to shut up.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:49AM (5 children)
On the FDA, I read of opposing [lp.org] a ban on vaping products and supporting [alibertarian.org] raw butter producers, both running counter to the FDA on the matters. So there's that. What I find puzzle is what is supposed to be the point of the exercise? It's one thing if the information is likely to be massively popularized like who is president of the US or a smoking gun for dire climate change. But the Libertarian Party's present day stance on niche issues? You happen to know any other third party's stance on these things too, with examples of those stances? They would be just as obscure.
It makes no sense to speak of your perception when it is ridiculously fallible, and you haven't actually bothered to perceive anything on top of that.
This is such a massive failure of thought. You're not saying that the Libertarians have no position concerning these things (ignoring that they can't possibly speak of every flaw of government, they don't have the media bandwidth to do so), but the ludicrously banal claim that you merely don't perceive them to have this position without even the slightest effort made to justify why that is supposed to be significant. You are a stain on humanity - unfortunately far from alone. turgid pulled some similar crap in his journal where he claims not to understand why people voted for Brexit, and yet, when I mention a bunch of reasons [soylentnews.org], he comes up with the bullshit excuse that they're "rebutted", indicating that contrary to original assertion he did know of these reasons and came up with a really silly ritual for mentally ignoring those reasons.
Perception is deceptive, particularly when you're buried in that echo chamber. And people who can't even google for information or ask/read about people with alternate beliefs and why they have those beliefs, have no business telling the rest of us about their perceptions. It's an utter waste of all our time.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:51PM
Ooooh, he used the word retarded?!?!
Whatever happened to civil discourse in our country? Oh right, Rtards elected Trump the bigoted wanker pedophile con artist.
GOOD JOB MORONS!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday January 01 2020, @10:03PM (3 children)
Sure, and Google's charter said "Don't be evil". I know what the "party line" is, not show me an actual candidate that is actually talking about DOING anything about it? Any nastygrams to the FDA, any bills introduced?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 02 2020, @01:12AM (2 children)
Well, if you know the "party line", then you know a lot of what actual candidates are actually talking about DOING. Really, what do you think a "party line" is in the first place? This is a large part of why I described the argument as retarded. You've already allowed that you've witnessed what you're demanding to see. You've not only chased your own tail, but you caught it too. Good job!
I count two such nastygrams in my previous post. And how does one introduce bills to curb FDA power, when one doesn't have any elected officials at that level to introduce those bills?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday January 10 2020, @07:11AM (1 child)
Any action at the state level (there are a few in state government)? Any candidates talking about it lately?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 10 2020, @01:43PM
(Score: 1, Disagree) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:22AM (26 children)
Government choosing who wins and loses is not an aspect of capitalism.
Of course it is. And it's as natural as the sunrise, as is every human interaction. The government is just another player. The government is us. Everything happens because we let or want it to happen.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:32AM (13 children)
No, it is an aspect of government. Which economic system they pay lip service to is irrelevant. Saying otherwise when you know better is simply lying out your ass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @07:33AM (12 children)
Please, don't take yourself so seriously. All our systems are still simple might makes right. Capitalism is just normal natural animal exchange, actually an abstraction layer, like Java, to hide the innards. Still just chimps trading bananas.
You cannot separate yourself from your government. It is your creation.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:47PM (11 children)
Which neither alters nor refutes anything I've said.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:45PM (10 children)
Of course it does. You're making distinctions without a difference. You cannot separate "government" from anything else.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:48PM (9 children)
You most certainly can. It is an abstraction but it has important facets that do not apply to individuals.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:56PM (8 children)
No different than any other large institution. It responds to the same stimuli, from the same people. It is still your creation.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @10:28PM (7 children)
No, in fact a government does not respond to the same stimuli as an individual or any other form of large institution. Its scope and function are different from every other sort, thus what it responds to differs accordingly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @05:24AM (6 children)
You create differences where there are none. All power works the same way. The force is universal, and singular. The only "government" you are subject to is finance.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:52AM (3 children)
(Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @08:26AM (2 children)
Only you can waste your own time. And you are still wrong... And since you don't listen, there is no point in explaining anything to you. You shall follow your master into the abyss.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @12:30AM (1 child)
Ah, the moderator, the scoundrel that has nothing to offer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @12:48AM
fustakrakich is the embodiment of having nothing to offer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 02 2020, @12:36PM (1 child)
You might as well say that water and hydrogen peroxide chemically react the same because they have the same kind of atoms. No, that's not generalized to absurdity enough to cover your argument. You're arguing more along the lines of diamond and elemental sodium will react the same because they're both made of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 02 2020, @05:18PM
You're looking at the various reactions and fail to see that the force that causes a reaction is the same, regardless the composition. There is only one. Obviously this is the nature of people also. We are aggregated, animated dust.
"Capitalism" works because it occurs naturally. It works better if kept open. Communism is simply closed capitalism by an elite group. Like a monarchy it restricts upward mobility. On our side of the curtain we use finance for the same purpose, to ration capital and provide distraction to pacify, divide, and disperse the anger, and the voters give full consent when electing the bankers' servants to high office. This is the "government" they want. If you got any complaints, chalk it up the well documented natural long term effects of majority rule and collective living [urban lifestyle]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:13AM (11 children)
FTFY. Amazing how your post goes poof, when we correct this minor detail.
Remember capitalism is just private ownership of capital and the rules necessary to make that happen. Magical leaps of logic to claiming that deliberate breaking of capitalism, such as via the said non-private choosing of winners and losers, do not change that in the least.
(Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @07:38AM (10 children)
You, as a simple mouthpiece of your benefactors, just express denial.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @02:19PM (9 children)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:17PM (8 children)
You remain wrong
Your simple repetition does not make it so.
Words mean things.
And you make it clear they mean different things to different people, but yeah, you should listen to them some time.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:10PM (7 children)
Fortunately, I did more than merely repeat myself. Let's move on:
If I can't find your meaning in a dictionary, then fuck off. Semantics woo where words mean whatever you currently feel like is a waste of time, particularly, when you can't even be bothered to state the meaning as you choose to feel it. Look at this thread, for example. It's not just you. Nobody states a definition of capitalism until I do. In case you're wondering if my definition matches the real world, here's a real world definition of capitalism [merriam-webster.com]:
Where does governments picking winners and losers fit into that? It doesn't.
And I find it remarkable how you claim "mean different things to different people" while ignoring the explicit meaning of capitalism I stated. I made it quite clear what capitalism meant to me and you just blew it off with an idiotic conspiracy quip.
Practice what you preach instead of practicing semantics fallacies.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:25PM (6 children)
Where does governments picking winners and losers fit into that?
You pick the government. You are the government. You are the ones picking winners and losers. In both economics and politics your collective has all the power. It's why we can't get the sports package without all the ugly chrome trim and landau roof.
Everything you ever say is nothing but an appeal to authority. It defines your world, hence the corruption of "meaning".
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @05:06PM (5 children)
Still quite irrelevant to capitalism even if those sentences were true.
Collectives aren't capitalism.
No authority and no appeal to said authority makes that yet another false assertion.
And now semantics nihilism. You're subject to your own logic. Stop wasting my time.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:54PM (4 children)
Collectives aren't capitalism.
Again you prove yourself wrong. The market is a collective, on both sides, buying and selling. The collective decides what you see on the shelf and at what price. Your "capitalism" is communist!
And nobody is "wasting" your time but you.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @02:58AM (3 children)
"A collective" what? Words have meaning.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @05:30AM (2 children)
A collective mass of capital.
You keep repeating your little meme there, and still fail to comprehend... There is one word to define you... obtuse.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:13AM (1 child)
As opposed to "idiot" for you? You can't even explain the meaning you think words have much less say anything relevant and coherent. It's quite the remarkable dysfunction there.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @08:29AM
You're moving the semantics goalposts.
Nonsense, there are no goalposts, you are simply blinded by your own bias.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 31 2019, @05:39AM (3 children)
Maybe not, but it sure as hell isn't a free market. Unless a "free market" includes negotiating with the government to ensure monopoly powers and legal complexity -- which it might, depending on the extent of "free" in that concept.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:16AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:31AM
You ain't wrong. We're way the hell off of anything resembling free market capitalism, or even well managed capitalism, as far as drugs go. Which is exactly why you have to have insurance for routine prescriptions.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:31PM
Guess where there aren't a whole lot of regulations around this stuff: RWANDA!
And in fact, the place where the FDA DOESN"T exist has the expensive drugs where the place where it DOES exist has the cheap drugs.
Hmmm....
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:29PM
So did y'all forget we're talking about RWANDA here or what?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tokolosh on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:17PM
If you think America is a bastion of free markets and capitalism, and the Nordic countries (and others) are state-directed socialist regimes, I urge you to read "The Great Reversal - How America Gave Up on Free Markets" by Thomas Philippon. To quote from the blurb:
In this much-anticipated book, a leading economist argues that many key problems of the American economy are due not to the flaws of capitalism or the inevitabilities of globalization but to the concentration of corporate power. By lobbying against competition, the biggest firms drive profits higher while depressing wages and limiting opportunities for investment, innovation, and growth.
Why are cell-phone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question. But the search for an answer took Thomas Philippon on an unexpected journey through some of the most complex and hotly debated issues in modern economics. Ultimately he reached his surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition. Sector after economic sector is more concentrated than it was twenty years ago, dominated by fewer and bigger players who lobby politicians aggressively to protect and expand their profit margins. Across the country, this drives up prices while driving down investment, productivity, growth, and wages, resulting in more inequality. Meanwhile, Europe—long dismissed for competitive sclerosis and weak antitrust—is beating America at its own game.
Philippon, one of the world’s leading economists, did not expect these conclusions in the age of Silicon Valley start-ups and millennial millionaires. But the data from his cutting-edge research proved undeniable. In this compelling tale of economic detective work, we follow him as he works out the basic facts and consequences of industry concentration in the U.S. and Europe, shows how lobbying and campaign contributions have defanged antitrust regulators, and considers what all this means for free trade, technology, and innovation. For the sake of ordinary Americans, he concludes, government needs to return to what it once did best: keeping the playing field level for competition. It’s time to make American markets great—and free—again.