Philosophy Now Forum

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Presumably you also think that anyone should be allowed to take up Pharmacy, and sell what ever drugs they want, claiming whatever they want for their effectiveness?
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Welcome to Bob's Snake Oil for the cure of Cancer and AIDS.

People sell this shit over the counter already. Heard of homeopathy or the hundred other "natural" or "ancient" bullshit remedies?

BigWhit wrote:

bobevenson wrote:

BigWhit wrote:Mandatory licensing would be a more philosophically consistent position.

Not really, since if there is no patent protection, and competitors can use the technology to reduce costs, thereby lowering prices in a competitive environment, part of the savings to the end user can be returned to the developer of the new technology through taxes. Mandatory licensing is not needed at all and is probably a less efficient approach to the issue.

Mandatory licensing would protect patents while ensuring competition and lower prices while keeping the government out of it. The market would be much more free, and consumers (patients) would have better care.

But I'm not in favor of any government subsidies at all.

First of all, it would not be a government subsidy at all, it would be a payment for the company's investment in research that has been passed on to the end user in lower prices, and whose taxes will defray some of that reduction in price. As far as mandatory licensing, who is going to determine the licensing price, and on what basis? The government?

BigWhit wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Presumably you also think that anyone should be allowed to take up Pharmacy, and sell what ever drugs they want, claiming whatever they want for their effectiveness?
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Welcome to Bob's Snake Oil for the cure of Cancer and AIDS.

People sell this shit over the counter already. Heard of homeopathy or the hundred other "natural" or "ancient" bullshit remedies?

That might be true, but they have to reserve their comments about what the products can do in the UK. False claims can be challenged with the law, but obviously in Bob's world you'd be fucked and not be able to tell the difference between effective treatments and total shit.

I've lived in the US and the UK, and the shit that gets claimed on TV ads in the US would not get played in the UK. The BMA and the British Pharm standards do a good job to ensure dosage and purity in the UK.
Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality.
Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality. Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Let's see, doesn't BP stand for British Petroleum, and didn't they fuck up the ocean?

bobevenson wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality. Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Let's see, doesn't BP stand for British Petroleum, and didn't they fuck up the ocean?

No, that was Monsanto dip shit!

BP is obviously British Pharmaceuticals

Hobbes' Choice wrote: That might be true, but they have to reserve their comments about what the products can do in the UK. False claims can be challenged with the law, but obviously in Bob's world you'd be fucked and not be able to tell the difference between effective treatments and total shit.

I've lived in the US and the UK, and the shit that gets claimed on TV ads in the US would not get played in the UK. The BMA and the British Pharm standards do a good job to ensure dosage and purity in the UK.
Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality.
Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Ofc it would be nice to have somethung like that in the US but it doesn't take a doctorate in medicine to know that homeopathy is shit.

BigWhit wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote: That might be true, but they have to reserve their comments about what the products can do in the UK. False claims can be challenged with the law, but obviously in Bob's world you'd be fucked and not be able to tell the difference between effective treatments and total shit.

I've lived in the US and the UK, and the shit that gets claimed on TV ads in the US would not get played in the UK. The BMA and the British Pharm standards do a good job to ensure dosage and purity in the UK.
Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality.
Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Ofc it would be nice to have somethung like that in the US but it doesn't take a doctorate in medicine to know that homeopathy is shit.

Sadly I've met educated people who swear by it.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

BigWhit wrote:Ofc it would be nice to have somethung like that in the US but it doesn't take a doctorate in medicine to know that homeopathy is shit.

Sadly I've met educated people who swear by it.

Only goes to show that an education does not necessarily make one intelligent.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

bobevenson wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Anything with the "BP" mark is an assurance of quality. Only an idiot would suggest getting rid of all that.

Let's see, doesn't BP stand for British Petroleum, and didn't they fuck up the ocean?

No, that was Monsanto dip shit!

BP is obviously British Pharmaceuticals

You fucking moron!
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) began on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-owned Transocean-operated Macondo Prospect. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on 15 July 2010. Eleven people went missing and were never found and it is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, an estimated 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previously largest, the Ixtoc oil spill. The US Government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3). After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated the well site was still leaking. --Wikipedia

I want to say HC was being sarcastic...

BigWhit wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

BigWhit wrote:Ofc it would be nice to have somethung like that in the US but it doesn't take a doctorate in medicine to know that homeopathy is shit.

Sadly I've met educated people who swear by it.

Only goes to show that an education does not necessarily make one intelligent.

Intelligence comes in many forms, empirical rationality is one aspect. Faith is the mind killer.

bobevenson wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

bobevenson wrote: Let's see, doesn't BP stand for British Petroleum, and didn't they fuck up the ocean?

No, that was Haliburton dip shit!

BP is obviously British Pharmaceuticals

You fucking moron!
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) began on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-owned Transocean-operated Macondo Prospect. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on 15 July 2010. Eleven people went missing and were never found and it is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, an estimated 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previously largest, the Ixtoc oil spill. The US Government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3). After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated the well site was still leaking. --Wikipedia

The multinational corporation known as BP, is owned by more Americans than English people. The work that failed and caused the disaster was done by an American Company, FYI. HALIBURTON

But I was not talking about them or British Petroleum you brain dead fuckwit.

BP is also British Pharmacopia which sets standards by which drug sellers need to comply to include "BP" in the description line. This sets a standard of assurance so that a buy knows that "Ipbruprofen 200mg BP" will contain exactly the same active ingredient as any other product with the same description.
Morons who think that "Tylenol" is better than Acetominofen, or that Advil is better than Ibruprofen can spend more. Ordinary informed people can rest assured that the same shit can be bought for less.

BigWhit wrote:I want to say HC was being sarcastic...

1) I was referring to British Pharmacueticals, NOT British Petroleum. It's properly know as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pharmacopoeia. and sets drug standards.

2) Village Idiot Bob could not resist his sick urge to attack the British with mention of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. He thinks that because a multinational company has the word "British" at the front it is a license to attack it. In truth it is only 40% British owned, and the work carried out on the platform was mostly done by American business firms.

3) Ironically enough the cause of the disaster was due to badly carried out works by Dick Cheney's company Haliburton.

Hobbes' Choice wrote: Intelligence comes in many forms, empirical rationality is one aspect. Faith is the mind killer.

Indeed it is. I sometimes wonder what I'd be if I hadn't wasted a large portion of by life believing in absurdities.

BigWhit wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote: Intelligence comes in many forms, empirical rationality is one aspect. Faith is the mind killer.

Indeed it is. I sometimes wonder what I'd be if I hadn't wasted a large portion of by life believing in absurdities.

Tell that to Bob; he's invented his own set of absurdities.