tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post6081944299599249886..comments2024-03-19T05:21:09.868-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: How Cheating Spoils Capitalism: the true roots of skyrocketing inequalityDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59509967817745291972016-09-18T09:25:26.506-07:002016-09-18T09:25:26.506-07:00What do you think of the reports on dolphin conver...What do you think of the reports on dolphin conversations?<br />ImissWalter34noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25738936937930205312016-09-15T18:33:36.805-07:002016-09-15T18:33:36.805-07:00Hi Tacitus2
Just read the article you referenced
...Hi Tacitus2<br /><br />Just read the article you referenced<br />And it is talking about NEW formulations - NEW applications<br /><br />The original formulation for its original condition still becomes public domain and open to all<br /><br />To me it seems to be a that making a generic can be profitable - but cornering the market is PROFITABLE so they go that way<br /><br />I do agree that the patent system is knackered - re-formulating for slower release so that you take the drug less frequently does NOT strike me as passing the originality test duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47385913495773296412016-09-15T18:03:57.654-07:002016-09-15T18:03:57.654-07:00Duncan
http://www.biopharminternational.com/strat...Duncan<br /><br />http://www.biopharminternational.com/strategies-extending-life-patents<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69929729742622653782016-09-15T18:02:20.826-07:002016-09-15T18:02:20.826-07:00onward
onward
onward<br /><br /><br />onward<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41857733426417265882016-09-15T17:04:08.145-07:002016-09-15T17:04:08.145-07:00Tacitus2
I don't understand your "extend...Tacitus2<br /><br />I don't understand your "extending patents"<br />A patent lasts for 20 years,<br />If you formulate a new improved drug surely the new patent is on the new drug and after the 20 years the old drug is now public domain and anybody can make it??duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-86738670361692543192016-09-15T16:15:56.031-07:002016-09-15T16:15:56.031-07:00LarryHart
You misspoke. A generic epi pen does n...LarryHart<br /><br />You misspoke. A generic epi pen does not need Congressional approval it needs regulatory approval. Elected officials actually answer to their constituents albeit intemittently, imperfectly and not perhaps as their highest priority.<br /><br />A Conservative sentiment is that unaccountable apparatchiks should be limited to the lowest number and scope of action as is consistent with public safety. And sensible people can of course hold differing parameters on those points.<br /><br />Actually an equally great shame for the FDA is their connivance at drug companies extending patents. When a cash cow drug is getting close to expiration they will find ways to get extentions on it by new indications, new formulations. "Hey, it's a Gummi Bear version, nix that generic approval!"<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2806688429812715422016-09-15T15:18:08.689-07:002016-09-15T15:18:08.689-07:00Hi Dr. Brin:
Off topic but I knew you'd want ...Hi Dr. Brin:<br /><br />Off topic but I knew you'd want to be alerted:<br /><br />FWIW: Mainstream media have finally noticed your thesis.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/americas-cultural-civil-war/500087/?utm_source=atlfb" rel="nofollow">America's Cultural Civil War</a><br /><br />Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7819262162528006092016-09-15T14:01:12.471-07:002016-09-15T14:01:12.471-07:00LarryHart,
It was mostly ale that people drank at...LarryHart,<br /><br />It was mostly ale that people drank at the time in Europe. Generally beer and ale do not contain enough alcohol to kill pathogenic bacteria. However the preparation of both required the boiling of the water which definitely does kill pathogenic bacteria. I am sure people knew that not only was beer more fun but that they also got sick less. <br /><br />Where did you see this about the British? It would be interesting to either confirm or debunk this idea. I will have to dig up the economic figures when I get the time. In my experience with the Brits they seem to like drink still.<br />Deuxglassnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-5312783702061587052016-09-15T12:37:54.197-07:002016-09-15T12:37:54.197-07:00Robert:
And let's be honest. Your mechanism w...Robert:<br /><i><br />And let's be honest. Your mechanism would basically provide little profit to a drug company and thus not be produced. <br /></i><br /><br />Well, you wouldn't expect the current monopolistic company to produce a cheaper product, but one would hope that a competitor would find it profitable to do so. The obstacle, as Tacitus described it, is congressional approval. With all of the public outrage over the EpiPen price hike, that might not be as difficult as it once seemed.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75864849086724402312016-09-15T12:34:44.174-07:002016-09-15T12:34:44.174-07:00Deuxglass:
Ancient China, Sumer, Egypt, India, Pe...Deuxglass:<br /><i><br />Ancient China, Sumer, Egypt, India, Persia, Greece all used and abused alcohol from their beginnings. Alcohol was not used as a ritual drug but as an everyday drink and in that it is different from most other recreational drugs.<br /></i><br /><br />Until relatively recently in human history, water wasn't necessarily safe to drink. My understanding is that beer and wine were common beverages because they were purified of the pathogens carried in river water, and that Jesus's miracle of "turning water into wine" was not so much "turning lead into gold" as "making the water drinkable".<br /><br />I've even heard, and am inclined to credit, the idea that England came to outpace other European powers in colonization when they began to drink tea and coffee, thereby sobering up, while France, Spain, and Italy still favored wine.<br /><br /><i><br />I would go out on a limb and claim that alcoholic beverages are necessary for civilization.<br /></i><br /><br />That makes for an intersting view on Prohibition.<br /><br />;<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73984807685334761162016-09-15T12:21:17.109-07:002016-09-15T12:21:17.109-07:00One of the worst things about wine consumption in ...One of the worst things about wine consumption in historical periods is that lead was routinely added to wine in order to sweeten it. So wine consumption equaled lead poisoning. Drinking wine reduced intelligence, and self control while simultaneously increasing the levels of violence.occam's comicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50016679487986051812016-09-15T12:18:08.411-07:002016-09-15T12:18:08.411-07:00Tacitus, I had considered your approach (swapping ...Tacitus, I had considered your approach (swapping out the syringe). Then I realized the drawback as it could be used for illicit drug use and then the government would ban it and people would be arrested for carrying it because drugs *waves fingers in a scary/spooky fashion*.<br /><br />And let's be honest. Your mechanism would basically provide little profit to a drug company and thus not be produced. Having a specific system that was one-shot but which could be kept over the long term (because the only thing that needs to be swapped out is the medication itself if the Epi-Pen isn't used) would eliminate the scare of its use in illegal drugs while giving a small profit motive to a drug company to manufacture it, and even to insurance companies to cover it since it's not a yearly cost (unless used).<br /><br />Of course, a system that is more electronic and walks you through it (much like the current generation of defibrillators) would undoubtedly be a big sale item. But when you get down to it, all you really need is a smartphone app to explain the product's use and contact the proper authorities if it needs to be used. Thus you don't need to even upgrade the Epi-Pen in that situation (outside of being able to swap out old medication for fresh medication).<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61106708771259431802016-09-15T12:02:18.818-07:002016-09-15T12:02:18.818-07:00Jumper,
You guys reminded me that I used to pract...Jumper,<br /><i> You guys reminded me that I used to practice "the force" before that movie ever came out. At sundown start throwing frisbee and by pitch blackness still catching them. </i><br /><br />I don't know why we were allowed such free time, but a few of the guys would use a 20x20 wrestling room in high school to do something similar. Except we took the long 80s-style gym socks knotted at the end, and after turning out the lights would throw them at each other in the dark. Most've us couldn't throw anything worth a darn but got quite good at it.<br /><br />Nerd-sport. But ended quickly when a gym teacher spotted us leaving one day and gave us the raised eyebrow...Jeff B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49712119186542433752016-09-15T11:54:07.528-07:002016-09-15T11:54:07.528-07:00Alfred,
[my original, cited by you way upthread]....Alfred,<br /><br />[my original, cited by you way upthread]<i>...if you take away taxes as a tool to limit and control the grown of the oligarchs, then what tools exactly do you have left?</i><br /><br />[Your response] <i> The seeming weakness of the tools you think we have left to us tells an interesting story. They are all social pressures and one of them even dips into religious territory. That you think they are tools of small scale societies suggests you and I have a very different understanding of European history</i>.<br /><br />Several things going on here:<br />1. While one can assert as you do later in the same post that wealth for all parties is increasing, not just the .01%ers, this misses my point. The incontestable evidence (cited by Duncan later) is that the percentage of total wealth controlled by the proto-oligarchy is huge, the highest it has been in modern times, and growing. <br /><br />2. Whether this constitutes a threat to democracy and a stable social order is a matter of opinion, but given their propensity of "big money" to buy influence, lobby for favorable outcomes, and otherwise put their thumbs (or whole hands) on the scales of legislators and regulators, such a threat should I think be obvious. (enough) money buys influence and status, influence and status buy power, power tilts the scales.<br /><br />3. Your response focused on the several ideas I postulated for limiting/controlling the power of the proto-oligarchs if we removed the tools of law/government and taxation- but you left unanswered the original question. So:<br /><br />If (as I advocate) the power and influence and wealth of the proto-oligarchy is a. growing, and b. a threat to a stable democracy and social order, and we pursue as you seem to advocate the elimination of the use of taxation and regulation as tools to limit the power and influence and wealth of said proto-oligarchy, then <b> how do you propose we set up needed safeguards or checks</b>?<br /><br />I'm extremely enthusiastic about Dr. Brin's sousveillance society. But that is years into the future, and to get there, we have to survive the present and all the threats we now face; descent into oligarchy/plutocracy appears to be one of the largest midterm threats on the list.<br /><br />If, though, you are suggesting that oligarchy doesn't pose a threat, I'd like to see the data behind such a position. Trusting the wealthiest and the megacorps without effective limitations is as questionable as trusting government without effective checks and balances.Jeff B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64239869149422757152016-09-15T11:15:38.922-07:002016-09-15T11:15:38.922-07:00An Aside:
Here in France, Spring was exceptional...An Aside: <br /><br />Here in France, Spring was exceptionally wet with rainfalls up to 5 times normal and very cold on top. The consequence is that grain yields are down by 50% and vegetable and fruit yields are down by 30%.In old times, about 200 years ago, we would be facing famine so I am very happy I live in the Modern world or should I say the Developed world. If I were in the Third world and poor, then I would be facing starvation.<br /><br />Deuxglassnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57196291870243508872016-09-15T10:52:45.482-07:002016-09-15T10:52:45.482-07:00As to the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate, I believe...As to the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate, I believe there are many scientists and engineers who were inspired to become what they are thanks to Star Trek. However I am not aware of any who decided to follow the science road because of Star Wars. What I found interesting with Star Trek were the moral questions which kept popping up and caused me to think and ponder. Star Trek is gone now. The latest movies are just imitations of Star Wars. Kirk has become a Jedi in all but name and acts as immature as a 16 year-old. Hollywood can come up with genius but more often plays follow the latest big money-maker. Nevertheless I do enjoy them but I don’t take them seriously. Deuxglassnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53210324046716591052016-09-15T10:31:22.484-07:002016-09-15T10:31:22.484-07:00Jumper:
Most economists see deflation as a real p...Jumper:<br /><i><br />Most economists see deflation as a real possibility. Thus inflation is not necessarily baked in. I don't understand why if the monetary supply was perfectly matched to growth, inflation would be still mandated by either choice or necessity. After all, someone who did want to sit on a pile of cash, if not forever but say 20 years, and did so during a mild deflation and then a mild inflation, could in theory lose nothing.<br /></i><br /><br />Caveat emptor...pure intuition here...no economist training...<br /><br />No, inflation is not an absolute necessity. But in order for a steady money supply <b>not</b> to become inflated, it's not sufficient for all the "stuff" out there to buy with it sit still. The "stuff" will become less valuable over time due to entropy, and so the money supply either has to shrink or become inflated.<br /><br />A healthy economy has to keep producing more stuff, or at least replacing its older stuff with fresher stuff, in order not to be inflationary.<br /><br />Which means there is no magic number where you can say "Once I have x dollars stuffed away in my mattress, I'll never need to work again!" Because if (for a ridiculously simple example) there comes a point where all of the food has spoiled and no one has created new food to replace it, your money won't save you from starvation. Someone has to do the production, and if no one else is willing to do it in exchange for your money, then you have to do it yourself.<br /><br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81355752150081798532016-09-15T09:49:29.291-07:002016-09-15T09:49:29.291-07:00Robert
That would be a three cent syringe with a ...Robert<br /><br />That would be a three cent syringe with a short 25 gauge needle. In a small plastic box that I could whip up in Solidworks in two minutes. Packed inside is a little glass ampule of epinephrine. Snap the top, draw it up, jam it into any available large muscle. Every six months or so swap out a new amp.<br /><br />The auto injectors are nice but not really any improvement on this. When seconds count I guess they save you a few. All militaries have beefier versions for nerve gas protection, we could borrow their design I guess. <br /><br />Of course now we have wonderous new versions including I believe one that will talk you through the process. It would be easy to sync it to your cell phone and auto call 911. But in terms of saving your life the TaciTech version at about five bucks ('cause I am a capitalist too), would work just as well thanks.<br /><br />Tacitus<br /><br />Tacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47821452724861864712016-09-15T09:32:29.084-07:002016-09-15T09:32:29.084-07:00What I find interesting is that some innovator has...What I find interesting is that some innovator hasn't come up with a reusable Epi-Pen. <br /><br />Think of it. The reason the Epi-Pen has to be replaced is that the drug inside loses potency over time. But the drug itself costs pennies. We're paying for a drug delivery system.<br /><br />So why not have an Epi-Pen where the drug cartridge itself can be reused? Once the Epi-Pen itself has been used, that's it, of course - reusing needles isn't a good idea. But this would allow people to have an Epi-Pen and once a year, if they've not used the Epi-Pen, spend a couple dollars for a new cartridge instead of replacing the entire Epi-Pen.<br /><br />And seeing that the Epi-Pen itself still needs replacing once used, it even allows for product replacement rather than producing a product that puts the company out of business because of its durability! <br /><br />Rob H. Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42012219759113724452016-09-15T09:22:21.303-07:002016-09-15T09:22:21.303-07:00Dr. Brin,
It is quite possible that the choice of...Dr. Brin,<br /><br />It is quite possible that the choice of changing to a sedentary lifestyle came about as a way to better make and protect alcoholic beverages. It looks like people in the ME settled down in villages before farming came along and not because of it. It could even have been a valuable trade item between tribes and may I point out that even today, alcoholic drinks are major export/import articles. I would go as far as to say that alcohol and civilization are intimately entwined and that alcohol use encouraged civilization. Ancient China, Sumer, Egypt, India, Persia, Greece all used and abused alcohol from their beginnings. Alcohol was not used as a ritual drug but as an everyday drink and in that it is different from most other recreational drugs. Alcohol is a drug that facilitates communication (if used moderately) and can enhance group cohesion and adoption of new ideas. It’s a lubricator. The ancient Persians, when they had to make an important decision, would get very drunk and have a scribe write their ideas down. The next day they would review what was written and glean it for ideas. The Greeks would discuss and debate their ideas during drinking parties. Most of the Founding Fathers were liberal drinkers of wine, port, rum and whisky. By the end of the day they were more than tipsy. Alexander Hamilton who often had stomach problems was advised by his doctor to stop drinking. His doctor’s definition of “stopping to drink” was to drink only three glasses of wine a day! The deliberations, compromises and debates were made while they were “under the influence” and I think that facilitated their task. The Islamic Civilization became wine drinkers soon after they conquered their empire and started to discuss philosophy, mathematics and art. After four hundred years of brilliance, the Islamic hardliners came to power, abolished alcohol and their civilization shriveled. I would go out on a limb and claim that alcoholic beverages are necessary for civilization.Deuxglassnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48999011496392105512016-09-15T08:06:35.482-07:002016-09-15T08:06:35.482-07:00Duncan Cairncross,
Yes, the sneering. Some time b...Duncan Cairncross,<br /><br />Yes, the sneering. Some time back, I was watching a video of some 'successful' business person deigning to impart her wisdom to those ignorant engineers, most of whom had ideas their current employers were loathe to implement.<br /><br />She sneered at every single idea they had. Because the obvious and only way to go into a business was to pay other people to do everything, including coming up with the ideas. Unless you could get away with not paying them, or at least deferring payment until you sold the company, by which time it's not your headache.raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61569653601845093722016-09-15T07:25:04.773-07:002016-09-15T07:25:04.773-07:00Ah, Epi Pens. A subject I know a fair bit about. ...Ah, Epi Pens. A subject I know a fair bit about. The "drug" is ancient. Epinephrine has been around a very long time indeed. We used to draw it up and inject it subcutaneously with a syringe that cost about a penny. The medicine not much more. <br />It is the new delivery system that is tricksy. It has to be dummy resistant for use by minimally trained and understandably panicked patients. But the device has tech that is well established. An exceedingly smart individual who has overcome the liability of having 50% of my DNA designs the robotic assembly machinery that makes such delivery systems. They have had two perfectly fine generic versions ready to rock and roll pretty much by throwing a switch and shoveling polymer into the injector machines. The only hold up is FDA thumbs up.<br /><br />There are two possible reasons why this has not happened (until recently).<br /><br />Reason One. The FDA does have an obligation to be sure the darn things "deliver". It would not do to count on a device that failed you. Counter: right now there are a lot of people who are not carrying any device, or are using outdated ones because of the obscene cost. THOSE folks will be less well served, to put it mildly.<br /><br />Reason Two. It is my understanding that the head of Mylan, the company that makes the brand name epi pen, shares 50% of the DNA of a US Senator. This is no liability whatsoever. <br /><br />In the spirit of non partisanism I won't Name-n-Shame today.<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-67999206186749049152016-09-15T06:00:01.601-07:002016-09-15T06:00:01.601-07:00If you want real competition, you need socialism s...If you want real competition, you need socialism so all the competitors start equally. Under capitalism, in the 100 yard dash, the 1% start at the 99th yard.Will Shetterlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08539053268352597627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53373577106067601262016-09-15T05:16:28.293-07:002016-09-15T05:16:28.293-07:00Another book surfaced to my memory, thinking about...Another book surfaced to my memory, thinking about upper-crust contempt for the innovator, and a book that is much easier reading than Veblen, whose prose is difficult. Mary Helms' 1993 book "Craft and the Kingly Ideal" is a cross-cultural look at the relationship between those who have power and those who have skill. A major theme of the book is that in small-scale societies, where leadership roles are fluid, temporary and based on perceived merit, leaders are chosen based on their skills. For instance, in many small, sub-Saharan societies a man is not taken seriously as a leader if have cannot dance well. This sounds silly to us, but these are people who believe that dance has magical powers, healing being principal among those powers. But as soon as power and wealth become inherited at the chiefdom level (a chiefdom is just a nascent state) then the relationship changes. Leaders become patrons of the arts and coordinators of craftsmen, not producing anything of value themselves but directing the actions of those who do. And in state-level societies, those inherited leaders, aristocrats, come to have contempt of the very innovators and craftspeople they patronize. <br /><br />The fact that society, in its shift from aristocracy and despotism to democracy and freedom, is coming to value the innovators over the merely wealthy is a good sign, and fits with that pattern I was talking about up at the top. In some ways we are returning to some prehistoric patterns of living. Democracy, and now technology, are facilitating a shift away from the pattern that human civilizations have followed for the last several thousand years.But there are those who are trying to make themselves into a new aristocracy, the Enron "smartest people in the room" types who look down their long noses at all the rest of us in exactly the same way the old aristocracy did. How they justify their hubris hardly matters, expect that if we are going to preserve freedom, we have to be able to shout back against their propaganda.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6405203640140914152016-09-15T04:28:05.152-07:002016-09-15T04:28:05.152-07:00Laurent, your armchair psychology is part of Thors...Laurent, your armchair psychology is part of Thorsten Veblen's argument in his 1899 book "The Theory of the Leisure Class." It ultimately boils down to ego and the ability of the human mind to rationalize anything to protect it.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.com