41–50 of 95 posts
People want it both ways. They want private business to use the free market to develop more efficient and better solutions than a socialized system, but also a limit to just how much that free market should compensate them. Either you're a capitalist or you're not. If the company in question was Disney or Apple, this wouldn't be appearing on HN in any capacity.
In general, I wouldn't have a problem with this. It was a preplanned stock sale, and the value of Moderna skyrocketed, predictably. But, this... "In a congressional hearing in March, Sanders highlighted that Moderna created its vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and received $1.7 billion in federal grant money for clinical development." sort of changes things. The solution? I am not sure.
The end game for america is either a few elites living in gated communities with the rest of us living in filth, or revolution ssss
We should just go back to like 80% tax rate after $100M income.
Tax assets.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont understand this comment, sorry.
Selling shares to raise money to donate to charity feels highly likely to net negative social good regardless of how the funds are spent. You could simply retain ownership of an important biomedical company or you could share it with employees. Selling shares for money that you then give away is dumb.
Surely the CEO has a tax advisor to advise... so this leads me to believe that very little of it will "go to the charities"
We should just go back to like 80% tax rate after $100M income.
I suspect very few people report income in excess of $100M and an 80% bracket would do very little for society other than a vindictive gesture to placate the masses.
Not saying we should or shouldn’t…but it’s not gonna fix all our problems like people think.
> Moderna created its vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and received $1.7 billion in federal grant money for clinical development. Is the vaccine subject to any patents or other restrictions that would prevent a generic version? If so, why is this allowed when its development was largely paid for by the public?
It was extremely fortunate, as it turns out, that somebody had previously invested the megadollars to build that platform in hopes that it would turn out to be useful. It was a modestly risky bet, lots of biotech VC cash ends up being set on fire.
Nobody will invest in the next Moderna if they believe the Feds will effectively nationalize their investment if it turns out to be valuable/"essential" enough.
People want it both ways. They want private business to use the free market to develop more efficient and better solutions than a socialized system, but also a limit to just how much that free market should compensate them. Either you're a capitalist or you're not. If the company in question was Disney or Apple, this wouldn't be appearing on HN in any capacity.
Indeed. Moderna was real science, real innovation, and mostly huge globs of real private capital at risk. And though I'm skeptical on almost anything "Covid", most people think he saved the world with this vaccine technology which has big potential in future. This is capitalism 101, and the spoils need to go to the victor for it to work. Any government funding does muddy the waters slightly, but anything they did con…
It absolutely was not! It was billions of public funding for a public health emergency.
In general, I wouldn't have a problem with this. It was a preplanned stock sale, and the value of Moderna skyrocketed, predictably. But, this... "In a congressional hearing in March, Sanders highlighted that Moderna created its vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and received $1.7 billion in federal grant money for clinical development." sort of changes things. The solution? I am not sure.
The first would be for the government to behave like a normal investor: Give money for stock or give a loan instead of writing blank cheques.
The blank cheque at least could have disallowed any sort of patents. This is quite ridiculous: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/science/moderna-covid-vac...