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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2010 : 02:02:01 [Permalink]
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This is old, but interesting:
Some interesting (if not totally relevant) sections:
| An internal National Institutes of Health (NIH) document, obtained by Public Citizen through the Freedom of Information Act, shows how crucial taxpayer-funded research is to top-selling drugs. According to the NIH, taxpayer-funded scientists conducted 55 percent of the research projects that led to the discovery and development of the top five selling drugs in 1995. (See Section III) |
| Drug industry R&D is made less risky by the fact that only about 22 percent of the new drugs brought to market in the last two decades were innovative drugs that represented important therapeutic gains over existing drugs. Most were "me-too" drugs, which often replicate existing successful drugs. (See Section VI) |
| The industry fought, and won, a nine-year legal battle to keep congressional investigators from the General Accounting Office from seeing the industry’s complete R&D records. (See Section IV) Congress can subpoena the records but has failed to do so. That might owe to the fact that in 1999-2000 the drug industry spent $262 million on federal lobbying, campaign contributions and ads for candidates thinly disguised as "issue" ads. (See accompanying report, "The Other Drug War: Big Pharma’s 625 Washington Lobbyists") |
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular
USA
854 Posts |
 Posted - 05/23/2010 : 02:15:50 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
You're getting the argument backwards, still. The "due only" part is a straw man. If the rich get rich with the help of the government at all, then it is hypocritical and cruel of them to lobby against governmental policies which would help the non-rich. Gorgo gave a list of examples in which the rich are continually aided by the government, not a list of examples in which the rich were made rich by the government. |
I was arguing against: "Most of the wealthy are wealthy because they've found a way to use the government to make them wealthy." This would seem to argue people have become wealthy primarily via government, so exchange "due only" to "due primarily." You're right, "due only" is too strong.
I don't think most of the things listed aid the rich without aiding the non-rich.
| In other words, the "libertarian" attitude of "I got mine, everyone else can fuck off" is blind to the fact that they didn't get theirs through their own "hard work" alone. They've been given public help for the last 200+ years. For them to shun helping the public in return is unethically selfish and plainly hypocritical. |
Maybe a straw man of your own. :) Everyone short of Ayn Rand wants to help the public. The most extreme tax suggestions I have ever seen by anyone serious is a flat tax with exemptions for those in poverty, though I would expect anything they could ever possibly enact would be much more progressive. |
"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking
"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 05/23/2010 : 02:37:09 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Machi4velli
I don't think most of the things listed aid the rich without aiding the non-rich.
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So, you're of the opinion there is a level playing field? |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Thoughts On Politics
