[Opinion] Big Pharma Shills?

[Asteriskos]

Do most folks in the Western world believe that "allopathic" doctors are "big pharma shills"?
Shall we include Vets and Dentists as well? Over time I've got to admit it sure looks like it, huh?

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 12:12 AM

I have a special reason to question Vets. I've learned a great deal about pet food over the years, and how some vet's may not be very forthcoming about it to pet patient owners! Are vets shills of the Pet Food Makers? I'm grateful for modern dentistry though I once encountered a dentist that thought he was a psychiatrist, very annoying, I finally told him to knock it off and fix the tooth! (Yes, I did do that!) It's not my fault you chose the wrong major in med school! The psychology of Potato Chips. WTF? Yes, I Can Eat Just One!

 

[Nembra]

It's a complicated matter. Where I live doctors are quite respected and in fact don't really ever go full corporate shill, but there's kind of a range. Pharmacological companies do have contracts with medical clinics to prescriebe certain brands of the same medicine over others, but it doesn't really get much worse than just that, at least at the level of individual doctors.

 

[SkullTraill]

I am somewhat suspicious of modern higher education, especially in cases where you have to learn from textbooks more than experiments and those textbooks are essentially all published by the same group of people etc etc.

But all of that PALES in comparison to the simple logical exercise of medicine and healthcare being a business, and that business makes more profits when you are sick and in a constant state of "managed illness" as opposed to being cured.

I only go to doctors/hospitals when there is something I genuinely cannot manage myself, and even then there are some medications I will simply never take. In many parts of the world, this type of attitude is not entertained, and seen as an affront to doctors etc. People take offense to it, and are sometimes unwilling to help me find the type of care I need + feel comfortable with. Of course, this means I lose access to some care that I need, but it's a worthwhile sacrifice for me and my community (friends and family who have the same opinion) which has now grown enough that some of us are actually licensed doctors, making it much easier for us.

 

[Nembra]

But all of that PALES in comparison to the simple logical exercise of medicine and healthcare being a business, and that business makes more profits when you are sick and in a constant state of "managed illness" as opposed to being cured.

The most obvious counterargument is that if there's an effective cure then there's business to be made in selling it as competition to "illness management". Of course, since in the current system of power money can be exchanged for administrative power, nothing is just a business and such fundamental (one would think) market mechanisms don't really work strongly enough.

 

[SkullTraill]

The most obvious counterargument is that if there's an effective cure then there's business to be made in selling it as competition to "illness management".

Not really, as if you cure someone, you need to make at least approximately as much from the business of curing them one time as a different company would make from a lifetime of “managing” that illness. If you don’t, you will make less money and be put out of business.

And yes, in a perfect world without cabals and subversion and manipulation and misinformation, surely even if you didn’t make as much, you could release your cure for cheaper and instantly everyone in the world with that illness would switch over to doing business with you and put your “management” competitors out of business, that would be great. But it would never happen, as in the time it takes you to market and win customers you’d be crushed by them. Not to mention, even if it did all work out in the end, you’d massively lose revenue when the currently managed and uncured surplus ends up cured and you can only get business from new cases of whatever illness you’re treating.

No board of investors would ever prefer that business plan to just farming “management” treatments for infinite cash forever.

Of course, to this day, if you have enough money (probably somewhere around the exact amount of money you’d have to spend over a lifetime of treatment) to spend in one shot for a cure, then there are practitioners and clinics that will cure you, but obviously that’s inaccessible for 99.9% of people.

Capitalism has no space for problems being solved permanently, and therefore businesses ending graciously or being wound down. There is no provision for downsizing. There is only relentless growth. And in the medical field that translates to people being sicker, with more different sicknesses, for as long as possible… as long as they don’t die, of course.

All of this before even getting to what you say about money superseding business and taking over political power.

Capitalism, like democracy, works great for a simulation of computer-like perfectly logical decision makers making many small singular decisions. It does not work for the benefit of illogical, uneducated, moronic general public. Certainly doesn’t work within any system of morality, duty, obligation and common good. Of course I have no solution for this, and it’s a discussion for another thread even if I did.

My point being, I will personally never 100% trust the medical industry or big pharma for as long as they are industries and I have to pay for them. This is why wherever I go in the world, I like to foster and be a part of small communities where everyone truly loves and cares for each other, and we look out for each other as best we know how. That will beat a business anytime.