Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
From a fantastic piece by @deanbaker13.bsky.social. (Thanks to David Brooks for provoking it!) A thing I'd add is that the welfare costs of people not getting treated because prices are too high may rival or even dwarf the financial cost of the patent monopoly. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Text: We will spend over $700 billion this year on prescription drugs and other pharmaceutical products. If these items were sold in a free market, without patent monopolies and other protections, we would likely pay close to $100 billion. The savings of $600 billion would be close to $5,000 for every household. But they won’t let you talk about this fact in the New York Times either.