A ways back, last month in fact, I was having a quiet night at home and posted three things which I instantly dismissed as a succession of home-alone-blog-fillers, you know the kind that you say stuff in a sort of mock stream of consciousness just to get something on your blog. For some reason I didn't delete them. I guess I need much blog filling!
I've been feeling nothing for sidonia for a long while and this has been compounded by my instantaneous negativity towards the last three posts. In fact till about a week ago I'd not checked back... And when I did there was a comment. And that made me feel better about it. And I read the comment, and then (because I couldn't remember what I'd written) I had to read the post it referred to! And (yes this is a large succession of ands...) I've got a point. I've got a fucking point!
It is this...
* breathes in long and hard *
Capitalism - works by exploiting an advantage.
Intellectual Property - is all about protecting an advantage.
Protectionism - is any method by which IP remains protected.
Profiteering - works best when you combine the above (lets call it CIpP) and then milk it for all it's worth.
For the record I believe this equation:
CIpP = Very Bad!
I work in the drug business - the legal drug business. And I can say that despite the publicity they would have you believe, large pharma companies are profiteers plain as day. Everything they do - and remember that most of these businesses have been around since forever in terms of the current legal and social frameworks we now move in - is profiteering. (I know I should back this up but I'm just going to continue).
Don't get me wrong, drug companies are probably the only places where we will actively see commercialised advances in treatments for important diseases like HIV/AIDS. Yay, warm fuzzies for retrovirals etc.; shame about the fact that these and other tools are not freely available for a highly mobile and task oriented health force to go out armed with them and eradicate the bloody disease.
But that is not how the pharma companies work. They are good, nay great, at a) creating HUGE cash flow b) spending that HUGE amount of money c) protecting what and how they do EVERYTHING to do with that money, so that the end result d) continues a)... (and so on).
What they are not good at is looking at a problem and solving it once and for all. They find remedies not solutions. Remedy, like purity, can be a BAD word.
And that is why I'm upset with what I do. I really like the technical challenges of contributing to projects that outwardly appear to do a great amount of good. I'll probably look back and think that some of my work has actively helped some people,
BUT,
and it is a big but, it will have also helped to contributed to a big pharma's continuation.
Ultimately what I do supports this company's CIpP (and you know how I feel about that!).
So my question to you, and the one I'm currently challenged with day in and day out while working here, is how do I resolve this conflict without leaving?
I mean I know there are still opportunities for drug development outside of the big pharma framework to get a drug candidate into circulation and help people - but even 'independent' candidates will face a hurdle where they MUST sell that idea to get it out into the world. And you know why? Because all the investment, the regulations and technology required to develop, make and market drugs is the pharma's best ally in remaining successful. No one else has the footing necessary to do all that except big pharmas, so you either join them, or you turn yourself into one—the ultimate sell-out! And lo and behold pharma profiteering is maintained.
There is little I feel I can do to prevent any of the big pharmas continuation - in fact I'm so disheartened about it I can't even see a theoretical approach that would even get close.
I saw 'Amazing Grace' the other day and despite the fact that I've little to say about this overly Hollywood (and outright dumb in parts) movie is that it was relevant illustrating for me how good ideas stumble against profiteering. Unfortunately I can't ever see a clever trick that could be used to peg pharma CIpP back and I also don't envision turning myself into a crusading Wilberforce type character. I could do with some laudanum though…
So what to do? Any suggestions?
2 comments:
Certainly a tough one, always be a problem in a capitalist society that everything is incentive driven. But there is no better system out there - I heard a common saying in USSR was "I pretend to work and they pretend to pay me". Sadly money is the only thing found so far which seems to genuinely inspire organisations. All i can think is better allocation internationally, so for instance no patent protection in third world countries
There's no easy way out of this tangle, no. The current macro-scale environment within which corporations operate is well-established and not going anywhere anytime soon. (Capitalism as a system is damned hard to shift, because it doesn't require any external controls, and nor does it have vulnerable spots like proper anarchy.)
The only direction I can see this moving in is the same one that balances out all the anti-social outputs of capitalism, and that is public accountability. There are three influences of note on corporations - financial incentive, legislative restriction, and public accountability. The first is far more of a problem than it is a potential solution. There are major, major limits to what can be achieved by the second. The third is the only credible way of restraining the behaviour that you oppose.
This isn't a ridiculous goal, either. Public concerns about sweatshops have led to major changes in the clothing and athletic shoe industries. However, it is without doubt a daunting goal - despite those decades of public concern, still most garments and most athletic shoes are produced in massively exploitative conditions.
Still, if the choice is between a difficult goal and no goal at all, I know which one I choose.
kia kaha my friend.
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