Tell me, gentlemen, how would your puny free markets handle stuff like this?
Coase:K guyz, I was totally joking about the size thing. Jesus, there's nothing phallic about the market.
Please explain exactly why you decided to use the word "puny" as an adjective before the word "market". I couldn't care less whether you were "totally joking".
Coase:Autolykos, Not making a fallacy. Forget about government. I'm an anarchist, fuh crying out loud. How can markets deal with the problem of superbugs?
Not making a fallacy. Forget about government. I'm an anarchist, fuh crying out loud. How can markets deal with the problem of superbugs?
You are indeed making a fallacy, as far as I can tell. You seem to be implicitly arguing that, if free markets can't deal with the problem of "superbugs", then free markets are bad and shouldn't exist - whereas government presumably can deal with "superbugs" effectively. So you're comparing free markets with an idealized alternative, namely your conception of government.
You might also be making a nirvana fallacy in imagining a "perfect" solution to the problem of "superbugs". Thus, if free markets don't (or couldn't) live up to this "perfect" solution, then again they're bad and shouldn't exist.
You're an anarchist? That's news to me. At this point, I think it's more likely that you're a troll.
How can markets deal with the problem of "superbugs"? How should I know? I'm neither God nor even Nostradamus. That's like asking, "How can markets deal with the problem of an asteroid hitting Earth?"
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
You've posted a question like this before where you wanted us to take a quiz and give our "whacky Austrian answers" or some such nonsense to you.
It's evident that you don't really care about discussing economics; you're just griefing the forum community.
"Superbugs" are not a special problem. The problem is the number of different viruses circulating around the world at any given time through international travel rising to a level at which everyone is permanently ill with one or another.
So I've got one person who thinks we're all going to die. Any more takers?
Who here thinks that we're not going to die? Something's gotta take you out. When it comes to anti-biotic resistant bacteria- as long as the market is allowed to innovate, and the more we learn about how the human body works, it'll all be taken care of. What other answer can anyone possibly give? If humanity had an answer for this it'd already be well known. To me its like asking what the market is going to do about the eventuality of the Sun dying out. Maybe humans will figure it out, maybe they won't- to what end is this line of questioning?
A better question could be "What can I do about anti-biotic resistant bacteria?" Become a biochemist, figure something out.
uuuummmmmmmm
im planning on living forever. Transhumanism anyone? ill be a cold ruthless warmongering robot with the other internationalists.
Eating Propaganda
What do you mean i don't care how your day was?!
Hey you can combat the effects of ageing all you want- you can still be vaporized into nothingness somehow. Unless we figure out some way to re-assemble ourselves from even one atom that's tagged with our information or something awesome like that.
Autolykos,
No. You explain why you care why I called the market "puny", or else drop it.
I said nothing of what you attributed to me regarding the argument you think I'm making (I have not made an argument yet). Frankly, you seem defensive. I appreciate your honest at the end though. What would you say to a proposal to tax the use of antibiotics?
Rcder,
Don't get so caught up in my tone.
Caley,
Why aren't superbugs a problem?
You know, they only started mass-producing antibiotics in the middle of the last century. Before that, every bug was a "superbug".
A free society will have to deal with disputes, hunger and sickness, but not war, famine and pestilence. Those are the province of governments.
Right--like I said, markets are threatening to bring us to a state of pre-penicillin.
Forcing people to refrain from the use of antibiotics is going to do that a hell of a lot faster...
Assuming, of course, that banning a product actually makes it disappear, which it doesn't. You can't ban antibiotics all over the world tomorrow by decree. If the superbugs are going to kill us all, we're dead, that's it, kiss your arse goodbye, no one can save us now. If we're headed for a post-apocalyptic world with hardly any survivors, can we at least get rid of the goddamned government?
Tax, not ban.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110616193740.htm
problem solved already, move on :P
Awesome. Gotta love that government-funded research.
But, for the sake of discussion, assume there is no kryptonite. What then?
i see no reason for this particular area to be strictly relegated to only government research. pharma loves new drugs.
Gotta love pharma and their government-protected monopoly profits.