Martin Shkreli Says ‘Of Course’ He’d Raise Drug Price Again | Hacker News Reader

Martin Shkreli Says ‘Of Course’ He’d Raise Drug Price Again

bloomberg.com

Why is it news that he'd do the same thing again? His response was perfect: "It worked and we're making more money, exactly as intended".

Was popular outrage, the majority of which was from people who had no prior knowledge required to frame what was happening (and I didn't have that knowledge either) and no power to affect it really supposed to make him regret it?

Because clicks.

I imagine if you asked Dick Cheney about the Iraq War, Wall Street executives about the 2008 financial crisis, or the heads at the NSA about the Snowden revelations, they would give you a similar response.

Even when you are caught lying, fabricating, breaking the law, or defrauding the public, you will get away with it 100% if you are in a position of wealth and power. American institutions are apparently not strong enough to deal with this kind of corruption.

Sometimes I wonder if I should give my children the advice "Be good and moral and care about other people" or "Do everything you can to be rich and powerful so you can make yourself as immune to adversity as possible."

Sometimes I feel like the latter would be more helpful.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power; in all other cases observe it.

>Sometimes I wonder if I should give my children the advice "Be good and moral and care about other people" or "Do everything you can to be rich and powerful so you can make yourself as immune to adversity as possible."

Give them the former advice, and also tell them to make themselves as immune to adversity as possible because the world contains bad people. Goodness doesn't stop being good because badness exists, nor does the world become better by a refusal to confront and eliminate bad things.

He has done us all a service. The real problem is not the jacking up of the price of some obscure drug that almost nobody uses, but the constant yearly 10% to 20% increases in the blockbuster drugs that billions are spent on. By dragging the activities of the pharmaceutical industry into the light he is helping make change possible [1].

1. I do have some sympathy for the pharmaceutical industry as it has through its greed managed to get itself caught in the vice of rising regulation and safety requirements and payer (insurance) coverage restrictions. If only it was pharma management rather than the scientists that are being crushed.

>Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who posts on Twitter frequently

This is terrible reporting. Donald Trump posts on Twitter frequently. Shkreli's a veritable memelord.

Lol, every other tweet is about harambe, his supposed upcoming rap album or hillary having parkinsons.

Shkreli is right to ask anything he wants. If you want real change, get the AFD to loosen up their competition-killing requirements.

He has some good content here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA/vid...

Why should he be any different than the rest of the industry?

It's just basic economics. Supply and demand. There are only two options: raise the price so that producing the drug makes sense, or stop producing the drug altogether. For people who need the drug, the first option is obviously preferable.

This is not a typical case of Supply and Demand. This is a case of someone having complete control of supply on a necessity for some people and charging whatever they want because insurance and social programs will foot the bill. In some cases the drug companies can very cheaply produce the drugs.

This isn't a problem in a competitive market they would never get away with this sort of stuff but our laws and our healthcare system have created a perfect environment for exploiting.

Can't blame people like Martin for doing it but we can blame politicians for not doing something about it.

So, to sum up, "I have no regrets, except for the ruinous consequences of my actions." Well, okay. I'm amazed that he still gets to play like he's the smartest guy in the room, having so comically overplayed his hand.

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