81–90 of 92 posts
The $100M/vaccine price is stupid, but I would easily pay $1000 to get the vaccine early and raise money for factories. With just 20M doses it would mean $10B income for Moderna.
As far as I know, there isn’t any real need for more factory investment. Have you heard otherwise?
IMO the best reason for this isn’t even to raise funds, but rather because the rich/connected are going to do this anyways (and get away with it) so we might as well decrimalize it and make a dollar off of them in the process. I’d rather encourage them to give more money to the government than to see how low they go to validate their “essentialness”. It’s not even clear to me that this is such a terrible way to alloc…
Sounds good to me, let them be the guinea pigs. The ultra-rich and influential seem to be a renewable resource so it’s not like society will run out, if there are risks not found by tests thus far it won’t be swept under the rug, and they are not so numerous that they will make a serious impact on the supply chain.
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As far as I know, there isn’t any real need for more factory investment. Have you heard otherwise?
I read that about 1-2 billion vaccines will be created next year. That's nothing for 8 billion people.
Second, are manufacturers interested in filling that 6 billion gap? They can already afford to build the infrastructure and make more vaccines, but it doesn’t do any good if there is nobody to buy them and no way to get them to patients.
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It's a scarcity problem. We have a finite amount of doses and more importantly, ways to transport and give those doses. Many (but not all) of those problems can be solved by putting more money into the system. One way we handle scarcity in capitalism is by charging for things. Would you be willing to let a rich guy pay $10 million for the vaccine.. if it meant a 1000 teachers could get it for free next week? It is ba…
You are describing philanthropy , which is definitely not "basically a tax".
That the rich person receives the vaccine for their money, ie a material consideration, makes this not philanthrophy by definition - it's a sale. Or, put another way, me buying an overpriced handmade christmas ornament from Etsy isn't philanthropy either, even if I'm choosing to really overpay.
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You are describing philanthropy , which is definitely not "basically a tax".
Philanthropy is someone wealthy paying for 1000 teachers to get the vaccine and not getting anything in return. Philanthropy may or may not have covenants attached and the philanthropist will have different levels of control: "You must give these vaccines first to the teachers of my local elementary school" or "these must go to teachers in low income areas", etc. That the rich person receives the vaccine for their mo…
Also, philanthropy often gives you stuff. The WWF gives me a nice stuffed animal and thank you card, for instance. And plenty of wealthy donors mysteriously get their kids into colleges.
The $100M/vaccine price is stupid, but I would easily pay $1000 to get the vaccine early and raise money for factories. With just 20M doses it would mean $10B income for Moderna.
The prices suggested in this article are too high, even for the super rich. They have other forms of influence. They might have a golf buddy who knows the CEO of a pharma company who can get a few doses off the line for friends. But, offering the middle/upper income class a $1000 chance to jump ahead could generate just as much money with a much larger population getting protection.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Philanthropy is someone wealthy paying for 1000 teachers to get the vaccine and not getting anything in return. Philanthropy may or may not have covenants attached and the philanthropist will have different levels of control: "You must give these vaccines first to the teachers of my local elementary school" or "these must go to teachers in low income areas", etc. That the rich person receives the vaccine for their mo…
Ok, sure. In neither case is it basically a tax. Also, philanthropy often gives you stuff. The WWF gives me a nice stuffed animal and thank you card, for instance. And plenty of wealthy donors mysteriously get their kids into colleges.
Taxes are taking wealth for government functions, whether it's against an individual, a company, etc. When you buy a pack of cigarettes (in the US) you're being taxed - the same goes for gasoline. Overcharging for the vaccine intentionally and using that to give out free vaccine doses is by definition a tax, in the same way that any consumption tax is a tax.
It could be a marketing campaign paid for by the "greedy rich" to improve the health of the system. American's love celebrities, so if celebrities pay for access, the common American will want what is temporarily denied from them. There is a historical precedent, Antoine Parmentier tricked the French people into adopting the potato in 1786, by placing armed guards around potato fields: https://www.damninteresting.com…
> Antoine Parmentier tricked the French people into adopting the potato They should try a similar trick now. It seems many French people are reluctant to get vaccinated.
Set a price high enough that this becomes clearly a good thing: what about $25k/person, spent directly on vaccines for others? I've been thinking about the whole "public vaccination" virtue signaling that politicians have been doing. The most ethical path would be to be immunized publicly as a politician at the same time as your risk group rather than before, ideally as the last person in your risk group so you have…
>I've been thinking about the whole "public vaccination" virtue signaling that politicians have been doing. That's not virtue signaling, or not ONLY virtue signaling - they get priority due to continuity of government laws. See https://www.rollcall.com/2020/12/13/white-house-congress-jud... Now if they had integrity, the ones that dismissed, downplayed, ignored, refused to wear masks, etc. should have skipped their d…