Comment Rescue, Fee Hand of the Market Dept. 1
A commenter to this post said:
What they need to do is stop the direct to consumer advertising, like all the other countries, with the exception of New Zealand.
I agree.
The advertisements for prescription drugs directed at private citizens put a lie to the theory that market forces will encourage businesses to act morally (remember that private citizens cannot purchase prescriptions drugs without a prescription; all they can do is pester their doctors for prescriptions).
Market forces encourage business to sell more stuff using any means possible.
For example.
Note that this article talks about the FDA’s failure to regulate. If the FDA is failing to regulate (and it is), it is not because the persons who work there don’t care.
It’s because 30 years of Republican Economic Theory and Faith in the Fee Hand of the Market have spayed the FDA.
The FDA is a gelding, as are most other regulatory agencies.
Republicans, under the tutelage of their corporate masters, have made it so.
February 28, 2010 at 11:45 am
We won’t see any change because of the owners of Congress people. The banks, Big Pharma, insurance companies & the lawyers (forget tort reform) all have the ability to apply pressure to their pet politicians & no regulatory agency will be worth the salary that’s been set aside for it.
Yeah, we have choices. Shut up about it & cope as best we can, or buy an island & start a monarchy. Cynical, yeah. But it’s the truth.