Tell me, gentlemen, how would your puny free markets handle stuff like this?
Tell me, gentleman, how would your puny governments handle stuff like that?
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
By taxing the everloving shit out of the use of antibiotics.
Also, my government is literally bigger than the rest of the entire world fyi.
But hell, let's assume government failure. How do you stop markets from returning us to pre-penicillin days?
Hm, I only hope an astute government would have seen this coming back in the days, and would have hanged Mr. Fleming before his foul plan of saving hundreds of millions would have been allowed to run its course.
But seriously, the pretense of us directing biological evolution though taxing stuff is incredible to me. I can only hope some plot of land where antibiotics will not be taxed will be left somewhere, so a superior immune system will develop in time allowing our libertarian gents to sneeze their way into an invasion of the statist mainland. Wouldn’t that be something?
Coase:By taxing the everloving shit out of the use of antibiotics.
Lol. Who are you to say how much extra money people must pay up in order to (legally) use antibiotics?
Coase:Also, my government is literally bigger than the rest of the entire world fyi.
What's that supposed to mean?
Coase:But hell, let's assume government failure. How do you stop markets from returning us to pre-penicillin days?
How would "taxing the everloving shit out of the use of antibiotics" necessarily not return us to pre-penicillin days?
Your use of 'puny' is nonsense. Free market is just the sum total of all voluntary exchanges, and therefore greater in size than any government you care to dream up.
What say we just let one state or even one city be 100% free market without any government intervention and see what happens? That's a small little sliver of your precious tax base. But now, that would literally destroy the state's argument for the need of control/planning should such a place succeed, which many believe it would.
Guys, fugget about government. We're all gonna die cuz of superbugs. What're markets going to do about it?
Autolykos,
I'm American. I'm pretty sure my government is in more debt than the entire world has money or something stupid like that.
markets are natural. Death is natural. Malthus.
Maybe the military and big pharma shouldn't be genetically modifying viruses for use with vaccines and then they wouldn' evolve the way that they do.
Eating Propaganda
What do you mean i don't care how your day was?!
Coase:Autolykos, I'm American. I'm pretty sure my government is in more debt than the entire world has money or something stupid like that.
I'm American too, and I'm well aware of the debt situation the US government is in. What's your point? Were you trying to show how the US government isn't "puny"?
Coase:Guys, fugget about government. We're all gonna die cuz of superbugs. What're markets going to do about it?
Do I really need to point out the fallacy you seem to be engaging in?
Now answer my question. Who are you to say how much extra money people must pay in order to (legally) use antibiotics?
K guyz, I was totally joking about the size thing. Jesus, there's nothing phallic about the market.
Not making a fallacy. Forget about government. I'm an anarchist, fuh crying out loud. How can markets deal with the problem of superbugs?
Simple: nor governments nor free markets can do jack about it. It's the harsh reality. Infections contracted in hospitals, the absolute worst kind, kill thousands each year without too much fuss being made about it. The antibiotics given to stave off these "bugs" have a list of side effects a mile long, most of them really nasty.
Believe me, I tried them on my skin. Went in for a small operation which lasted a grand total of seventeen minutes, was given a ton of extremely powerful antibiotics and ended up in the ER room a few days later bleeding like a fountain through a massive ulcer in my stomach. Ended up staying more than a week in hospital, having blood transfusion etc. Although in my heart I knew this was linked to my operation I spent two years (and lot of money) to discover the cause of this ulcer since I was classified as an "abnornal case" (not a risk subject). This of course despite having a copy of my medical records (which included the antibiotics specs) sent over to the hospital were I was staying. In the end, after all these expensive tests turned out negative I was told by a doctor my bleeding was "probably" caused by antibiotics since they couldn't find anything else. Of course I could have sued the hospital over it because the wager I had signed did not mention side effects from both drugs and bugs but a lawyer friend dissuaded me because, since I had no permanent illness, legal costs would have far exceeded any compensation. This experience (which took place in two different private clinics) left me with a sense of deep distrust in the medical establishment. Both private and public.
Sorry for the rant, carry on.
So I've got one person who thinks we're all going to die. Any more takers?