It’s alway nice to be Number 1.
For example, I’m terrifically proud that I purchased my current home at the absolute peak of the real estate bubble. And I feel equally puffed up over this chart from the Economist showing that we in the US are supporting Big Pharma in their quest for profits.
Make Sure To Swallow It All
Shame on those Health Care reformers who want to take us down a peg in the world wide standings by actually negotiating reasonable prices as part of a reform package.
We have to feel sorry, as usual, for those people in India who are able to negotiate cheap royalties with Big Pharma on their drugs because of their simple negotiating stance. Give us a great deal, or we’ll just manufacture and sell generics and pay you nothing.
It’s a negotiating stance that has legs.
Sorry, It's Only Available In China
I discovered today that if you access the Interweb from China you can get free music from the major record labels. From a NY Times article back in April:
Can global music companies make money by giving away songs in China, where piracy is rampant?
They certainly hope so. Last Monday, the world’s biggest record labels, including EMI, the Warner Music Group and Vivendi’s Universal Music, said they would seek to profit here by working with Google and offering free downloads of music to anyone inside China.
The music publishers get a ‘cut’ of advertising revenue on the music site that gives away their music. So they can say they are getting paid, but it’s the same situation as with Big Pharma in India. They have no choice. And even with all that nobody is making any money; including Google who has subsidized the site to compete with rival Baidu who links to pirated music.
In both cases Big Pharma and Big Music are getting paid virtually zero. But now they can say to those of us at the top of the food chain that everyone else is paying also. So stop your complaining.
Who’s stupid here?
Not A Mystery 
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