Cut sugar industry subsidies and promote real food. Covid pandemic is nothing to the obesity one.
Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
51–60 of 595 posts
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#52No it can't.
Top 10 spenders on lobbying in 2021:
"Lobbying Client","Total Spent"
"US Chamber of Commerce","$17590000"
"Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America","$8664000"
"National Assn of Realtors","$7985521"
"American Medical Assn","$6520000"
"American Hospital Assn","$5852623"
"Blue Cross/Blue Shield","$5774300"
"Raytheon Technologies","$5360000"
"Amazon.com","$5060000"
"Facebook Inc","$4790000"
"Northrop Grumman","$4610000"
Plus, Biden is the last person to be trusted with this. The overall lockdowns in the US are basically a joke. Your government let big pharma abuse the entire society for more than a year and people are still so discombobulated by what happened that they've started to develop a stockholm syndrome.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#53"Hearing aids cost thousands of dollars apiece, for no other reason than there is a cartel established by government that prevents firms from selling hearing aids without a prescription." An example of how many (most?) monopolies are able to exist because of some sort of legal authorization or protection. Regulatory capture. There are dozens of companies who would no doubt start making inexpensive hearing aids tomorr…
Queue "overpowered OTC aids destroyed my hearing" pushback...
Total aside, in this context I think it's "cue". Like a cue card.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#54Big pharma is significantly less of a problem than the physician and hospital cartels. I have no idea why these groups have survived scrutiny for their literal multi-hundred million dollar lobbying/bribery of politicians. My closest guess is that we all know "My" physician or a well paid nurse that benefits from the bribery.
They're part of the same mafia, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America spent $8664000 in 2021 only on lobbying.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#55> hospital price transparency, Wasn't this already put in place by the previous administration?
Only for billing cost of procedures. It's still a mess.
Did you know that hospitals make money by using name brand medications? They will get a contract with a brand, like Motrin, and charge you full price at $8 a pill. Then Motrin will will evaluate how much the hospital used and give them a big rebate to bring the hospital's cost down under $1 per pill. You can literally buy a bottle of ibuprofen for what they charge for a single pill, but of course in the name of safety (and really kickbacks too) they won't allow the cheaper outside medication. It's effectively an internal monopoly.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#56"Hearing aids cost thousands of dollars apiece, for no other reason than there is a cartel established by government that prevents firms from selling hearing aids without a prescription." An example of how many (most?) monopolies are able to exist because of some sort of legal authorization or protection. Regulatory capture. There are dozens of companies who would no doubt start making inexpensive hearing aids tomorr…
Queue "overpowered OTC aids destroyed my hearing" pushback...
Bose’s hearing aids were recently approved by the FDA, and they’re only $850. The APM Marketplace program recently covered this development and the hearing aid monopoly. The sky isn’t going to fall.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444600/marketplace
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/earbuds/sound...
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
"monopolies are able to exist because of some sort of legal authorization or protection" The entire point of patents...
It was not great before patents when a big company could steal your work and put you out of business after you put in the R&D effort.
Now they just file the patent before inventing it, let you do the R&D for them to make it a reality, and sue your for patent infringement when you go to market.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Queue "overpowered OTC aids destroyed my hearing" pushback...
Queue private agency testing, evaluating and rating products on the market
Cue rating agencies passing anything because hearing aid companies can go to another rating company if they don't, like what happened with mortgage securities in the 00s...
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#59Around 2005, I asked Kevin Phillips:
Me: According to your book, America's political parties have flipped every ~70 years. It should have happened around the time of Ross Perot, so I guess we're overdue. Do you think another realignment is emminent?
Phillips: No. It won't happen while Wall St. and finance remains in control of our political discourse.
--
It'll be amazing if Biden Admin is able to uncork the next cycle. But I'm not holding my breath.
Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich [2003] https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Democracy-Political-History-Am...
Here's a more recent account:
Lobbying America: The Politics of Business from Nixon to NAFTA [2015] https://www.amazon.com/Lobbying-America-Politics-Business-So...
Edit: I changed "Last decade" to "Around 2005". Time flies. My bad.
Re: Biden launches action on "Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Ag" – can it be real?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is buying a son’s painting considered a donation or not?
That's anonymous - there's no way for the Biden's to ever know the buyer. Of course, the buyer can just show them a picture of the painting in their house or whatever but that would be unethical.
It's unethical for the public to know who's the buyer, that's what they meant.