Exxon Reports $10.36 Billion Profit This Quarter

[john9001]

stop buying gasoline and ride the bus, or is that too simple a solution, instead you want the govt to tell you what kind of a car to drive.

wah wah, the govt didn't make the car mfg make high mpg cars, wah wah

news flash, you can buy high mpg cars, you just don't want them.

[kamilyun]

Originally posted by Sandman
I don't think so. It's the nature of economics.

Well, the example I'm thinking of is the relationship between pharmaceutical companies, healthcare industry and government healthcare programs.  'Big Pharma' has ensured that their profits never get undercut.  They sell in the US at artificially high prices.  You can go across the border to Canada and buy the exact same drugs cheaper.

Drug companies have only 5-10% of their entire workforce in the research and manufacture of their products.  They spend millions, even billions on promoting their drugs.  Why does something that treats HIV, cancer, etc. need to be promoted?

I see nothing but waste and artificially high prices in this industry and so I give my little equation of the average Joe getting screwed over.  Either in taxes to pay for government health care programs or in payments for personal health care coverage.

[Sandman]

It's all about elasticity of demand.

[Krusher]

Excellent, I hope to see a large dividend on my investments

[kamilyun]

Originally posted by Sandman
It's all about elasticity of demand.

Precisely.

...in most cases.

Drug companies create an artificially high demand, so we all pay more.  I have sales rep friends who acknowledge this.  They have taken me to lunch and dinner on their corporate accounts.  They push their products on doctors.  They try to keep generic drug prescriptions from being written/filled.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist.  This is how it works.  My wife and I could've worked in the industry (not sales reps...but actual R&D), but won't...ever.  



But there are even cases where 'elasticity of demand' do not apply.  Take cancer drugs.  The population of people with cancer is a roughly fixed percentage.  It's not like they want to buy the drugs.  They all HAVE to have treatment or they die.  

It's not the decision of buying a BMW 540 vs a Ford Focus.  Or even Heinz ketchup vs Hunt's.  Drug companies in many cases have a fixed population that has to have their product, or they die.

I'm getting too now (not at you, but at the situation) so this is my last post.  Cheers