Wohooo!!!! I just fired...... Myself!!!!!!!

[wacki]

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is putting heat on Congress to repeal $1 billion worth of special grants it approved last year, including a large part of the $3.1 million destined for a bioinformatics center at the University at Buffalo.

http://www.bufflink.org/NewsText/374354698263889.html


I had a dream job lined up which was to start this summer. No more!!!!! My future/past employer in Massachusetts normally grows by 1,000% during the summer months. They are growing 0% this summer. Wohoo!

Time to start job hunting. I feel wonderful.

[BCPVP]

If you're not working for the gov't, why should they be giving you special grants? I'm a little confused... /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[lastchance]

Because this leads to the development of Polio vaccines? Just a guess.

[BCPVP]

Which wouldn't develop without gov't help?

[MelchyBeau]

no, it probably wouldn't.

The gov't forces companies to do research into new medicines. Alot of tech research is funded by the gov't. this fuels our economy.

Melch

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
The gov't forces companies to do research into new medicines. Alot of tech research is funded by the gov't. this fuels our economy.

[/ QUOTE ]
Since when? I didn't know our gov't could make decisions for private businesses...

And how does robbing Peter to pay Paul fuel anything? Wouldn't the taxes that payed for the funding have fueled the economy as well?

[MelchyBeau]

[ QUOTE ]

Since when? I didn't know our gov't could make decisions for private businesses...


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the reason our medicine is more expensive to buy than in other countries. the companies have to spend x amount on research.

now as for other methods that the government controls private businesses. Ready? Here it goes.

Minimum Wage
False Advertising
OSHA
Monopolies
ENRON, Worldcom
Chemical disposal.
Food services
FCC

Melch

[BCPVP]

I'd say that those things are made by the businesses under threat. But the government isn't taking control of the business and forcing it to spend money.

[ QUOTE ]
This is the reason our medicine is more expensive to buy than in other countries. the companies have to spend x amount on research.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ok...but this doesn't explain why (or if) the gov't is giving money out for research. I was under the impression that medicine was more expensive here because the pharm companies charge more to recoup their losses on the research costs. Why would they need to do that if the gov't was paying for the research? I could be wrong though.

[wacki]

For the vaccine comment, private industry is concerned about money. Vaccines typically are not very profitable. For a pharmaceutical company to risk venture capital, there has to be a 1 billion dollars in guaranteed sales for only a few million in research costs. (I forget what the actual ratio is, but it's not much). If the R&D costs are too high, they won't take the risk. Vaccines are almost always made by grant money. If you want innovation/technology you need grant money. You think Intel invented that computer you're using? No, NASA invented it. In fact the vast majority of novel innovations/discoveries in the medical field are from grant money.

[BCPVP]

Good to know Wacki.

If it makes you feel better, I think there are better places to be trimming fat then jobs like yours. Kinda makes you sick that people like Robert Byrd get ~$240 million in pork for a dinky state like WV... /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[lastchance]

What kind of job were you going to get?

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
Time to start job hunting. I feel wonderful.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have the proper attitude. Good Luck wacki. You will do fine I bet.

-Zeno

[Broken Glass Can]

Even if you knew that a vote for Bush would cost you your job, the correct action is to vote for what is best for the country over your own personal interest. Clearly, a vote for Bush was the correct move.

[Eihli]

hey dumbass, everyone should vote for their own personal interest.

[Broken Glass Can]

[ QUOTE ]
hey dumbass, everyone should vote for their own personal interest.

[/ QUOTE ]

We should have a poll on this.

Voting for what is best for the country is in your best interest, and the best interest of your relatives and descendants in the years to come. Your short term financial interests pale by comparison.

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
"Everyone should vote for their own personal interest!"


We should have a poll on this.
<font color="white"> . </font>
Voting for what is best for the country is in your best interest, and the best interest of your relatives and descendants in the years to come. Your short term financial interests pale by comparison.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, this goes against the very foundations of capitalist credo, which claims in no uncertain terms that every man should aim for his own personal fortune and happiness -- in which case, the whole society will prosper.

Putting society's fortunes above personal fortunes is (well, that's where the word comes from!) socialism.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of job were you going to get?

[/ QUOTE ]

I was going to be a computational biologist for a Global Infectious Disease program that I've worked for in the past. The group does amazing work that would of gone a long way to help cure many illnesses and discover many biological mechanisms. The return on investment in infectious disease programs is very significant when compared to other fields in biology. I was also going to do some work in several other important fields, but those are a little more difficult to explain. It was a cool job, and I really do wish I can return some day. Even if it's only for a few months.

The work we did will help save millions of lives a year and prevent billions of lost work hours due to illnesses.

[lehighguy]

Drug costs are not related to government research assistance. Drug costs are based on what a company can charge to maximize its profit. If it costs you $1 to produce a drug, and you know you can charge $100 a bottle, you charge $100 a bottle. Reseach cost doesn't factor in there.

Other governments tend to pass laws limiting the cost of drugs, and since they have universal health care often the government is the purchaser, and as the sole purchaser they can demand a lower price. This is the real reason drug costs are lower in other countries.

So you might say, well if the government won't pay enough for a drug, businesses won't bother researching it. This is true, but we have to analyze the free-rider effect. If people in the US pay $100 for a drug and people in Canada pay $10 for the same drug people in the US are bearing the brunt of the research costs for developing new drugs. Foriegn governments know that it is in thier best interest to let someone else pay the cost of research and enjoy the low drug prices. Thus the current system.

One might also say that pharma comppanies like Pfizer all locate themselfs here, not Canada or France. Our ecnomy benefits as such. But are they really locating themselves here because we pay higher drug costs? No, they can research it in another country and sell it here just as easy. Production costs on developed drugs are low. They locate here because we have lower taxes and a more skilled workforce then our Canadian or French counterparts. If they could locate elsewhere that had better conditions they would (why some have moved to Caymen Islands). So the reason research is done here is not the price we pay for drugs, but the general health of our economy relative to the alternatives.

Lastly, using taxes to fund research in order to bring down drug prices is rather pointless. If you give a company $1,000,000 to do research and then ask them to lower the price of the drug by $1,000,000 then you aren't really chaning the effect on the economy at all.

The only way to create value in an economy is to improve efficiancy. Simply moving money around from one place to another doesn't do that.