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by EliRivers 4164 days ago
The most fundamental problem with EVERY FUCKING PRIVATE COMPANY THERE IS is that we all know that their primary goal is to make bank, so we can't trust them.

Do you grow your own food? Make your own clothes? Did you assemble your car yourself from materials you created using your own steel mill and other such basic materials manufacturing plants? You trust private companies every day, every one of which happily states that they want to make money. What's so special about medicines?
1 comments
transfire 4164 days ago
Yes I do grow some food. I also eat as much organic food as I can. I also am a thoughtful and careful buyer of all things. But medicine stands out above all other industries b/c it has extreme life-and-death consequences. For the companies involved, to make money there is a strong perverse incentive to have sick people. Compare it for instance to the police. How do you think we'd fair if the police were all run by private corporations and you had to pay them for service and protection?
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imakesnowflakes 4164 days ago
>Yes I do grow some food. I also eat as much organic food as I can.

This is something I use to wonder about. Isn't it more important that the food we eat be free of harmful toxins (like pesticides or harmful fertilizers?), but there is no agency that is responsible for checking the quality of vegetables or meat (At least here in India). There was an big issue with pesticides (Endosulfan)[1], in my state some time back. But still no government agency bothers to check for vegetables that are being sold to the public. No one bothers to check meat and fish for harmful levels of antibiotics or harmful chemicals.

So my question is, why are not governments spending any effort on this regards, while spending so much money of immunization. Combine with the fact that there is rampant corruption in every level of government, general poor quality of drugs sold in India, past proven incidents with pharmaceutical companies malpractices like faking results of medicine trials, is it too much if I think twice about giving an immunization drug to my kids?

[1]http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1189820/revea...

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