Category Archives: Business

EpiPen Protest Should Be Directed @ FDA & Patent Protectionism

Business, Capitalism, Free Markets, Government, Intellectual Property Rights, Regulation

And it’s the people’s fault, too.

Most Americans have zero understanding of free-market capitalism, and are interested only in government “protections,” namely the regulation of production, in the belief that government interference can reduce costs and get Big Bad Business to behave.

If only Americans, brainwashed in the nation’s government-controlled schools, understood the less intuitive truth and aimed the arrows in their quiver at Big Bad Government, the real bad actors.

In the case of the “EpiPen sticker shock,” bureaucrats at the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration)—beholden to keeping the bureaucracy alive, not getting innovation to market—practically gum-up the process whereby other makers of the product can enter the allergy antidote market and trigger competitive forces.

Then there are the patent grants of government privilege. By granting EpiPen makers patents for posterity—yes, this is government’s fault—these lengthy grants of patent privileges prohibit manufactures of generic drugs from entering the market to make comparable products.

Via Slate Star Codex:

… when was the last time that America’s chair industry hiked the price of chairs 400% and suddenly nobody in the country could afford to sit down? When was the last time that the mug industry decided to charge $300 per cup, and everyone had to drink coffee straight from the pot or face bankruptcy? When was the last time greedy shoe executives forced most Americans to go barefoot? And why do you think that is?

The problem with the pharmaceutical industry isn’t that they’re unregulated just like chairs and mugs. The problem with the pharmaceutical industry is that they’re part of a highly-regulated cronyist system that works completely differently from chairs and mugs.

If a chair company decided to charge $300 for their chairs, somebody else would set up a woodshop, sell their chairs for $250, and make a killing – and so on until chairs cost normal-chair-prices again. When Mylan decided to sell EpiPens for $300, in any normal system somebody would have made their own EpiPens and sold them for less. It wouldn’t have been hard. Its active ingredient, epinephrine, is off-patent, was being synthesized as early as 1906, and costs about ten cents per EpiPen-load. …

Golden oldies:

* “Should Policymakers Trust The Free Market To Meet Urgent Demand For Prescription Drugs?”
* “Patent Wrongs”

To further explore the topic from a libertarian propertarian perspective, click the “Intellectual Property Rights” search category.

EU Commissars Move To Control Ireland-Apple Tax Transactions

Business, EU, Europe, States' Rights, Taxation

And EU countries, most of which bitched about Brexit, wonder why they’re a morass of joblessness and welfare. The EU’s Great Centralizers in Brussels are looking to override Ireland’s tax arrangement with Apple, arrangements Ireland ought to be free to make as an ostensibly sovereign country. EU tax collectors don’t want Ireland to be free to grant Apple certain tax provisions that would enhance prosperity—jobs and investment—in Ireland.

Wait a second, wasn’t Ireland overwhelmingly against Brexit and for Britain remaining in the EU?

Don’t the Irish get that this is what union with EU commissars looks like?

2 Immutable Libertarian Truths About Gold Stars & Creating Value For Society

Business, Donald Trump, Free Markets, Government, libertarianism, Military, The State, War

Shall I play the litmus-test game of, “Are you a libertarian”? OK. I don’t believe you can call yourself a libertarian and disagree with these two statements I tweeted out:

1) The obscenity of the Gold Star designation, given for the “privilege” of dying for Uncle Sam. You are not awarded for bravery, where your obligation is toward your brothers-in-arms, for whom most men in the military are prepared to die; your family is awarded with a special status for simply dying, for getting killed.

2) Donald Trump has created more value for many more fellow Americans than any one man dying in the service of The State. (He just doesn’t know how to express himself. Neither do his “surrogates.”) Are we back to conflating The State’s wars with the Common Good? Wars destroy wealth and life; they don’t enhance them. America hasn’t fought a Just War for a long long time. (Read “Just War for Dummies.”)

UPDATED (4/9): Cruz Blames Victim; Big Business, For Big Government Shakedowns

Business, Donald Trump, Free Markets, Government, libertarianism

For someone who’s supposed to be so smart, Ted Cruz makes stupid arguments. This career politician, Cruz, repeatedly claims that Donald Trump is part of the DC corruption because (like all business moguls), Trump has paid politicians to let him operate. It’s ridiculous to blame the victim of government predation. Take away government and there would be no shakedowns.

More ridiculousness came today from Fox News and what passes for analysis there. In defense of Trump, bobbing-head Andrea Tantaros offered only that at least Trump admits to being part of the problem.

In Tantaros’ defense, Trump (who reads the wrong people) has adopted this idiotic line, namely blaming himself, the businessman, for a reality government brings about.

Again, take away government and there would be no shakedowns.


The correct answer is to be found under the heading “POLITICAL POWER VS. ECONOMIC POWER”:

“A successful politician and a successful businessman represent two solitudes, never the twain shall meet—except when the capitalist must curry favor with the politician so as to further his business interests, a reality brought about by corrupt politics. Trump’s donations to both parties fit a pattern forced by the regulatory state, whereby, in order to keep doing business, business is compelled to buy-off politicians. …

MORE.

UPDATE (4/9): Aside the fact that in a David vs. Goliath scenario there is never a moral equivalence between the parties—a libertarian never-ever conflates or draws equivalences between government corruption and individual or corporate corruption. Never! Thread:

Myron Robert Pauli: “Corruption is corruption whether it is business or government. A football team owner wants a taxpayer funded stadium. A State Department staffer negotiating a 2500 page ‘free trade agreement’ wants Hollywood to fund her spouse to be a DC lobbyist in return for writing IP protection for record companies into the agreement. I want a special tax exemption for overweight physicists with daughters from China! Whatever…. – who shakes down whom, the general idea is to benefit me and my friends over everyone else (taxpayers, consumers, competitors).”

Ilana Mercer: “Myron Robert Pauli, you show a profound lack of understanding of the workings of government vs. those of the individual; the workings of a monopolist in the use of force, vs. one who has no such power. Profound lacuna. Surprising too, given you write for my blog. This ancient column should tell you what I mean: “Media Concentration Is Not A Threat to Free Expression, Government Is.”