The problem with this argument is that pharmaceutical companies are private businesses trying to make a profit, not charities. If it were truly unprofitable to sell drugs in, say, Canada or France, pharmaceutical companies would just not sell their drugs in those countries. It is _less_ profitable to sell drugs in those countries than America but still profitable, which is why they still try to capture those markets. If America fixed this imbalance by forcing a lowering of drug prices in the American market, there's no reason to believe that this would cause raising of prices elsewhere. The only way this would be possible is if it were truly unprofitable to sell the drugs elsewhere, which can't be the case since these are corporations not charities. The real impact would be to slow down new drug development, since existing drugs are already profitable to sell everywhere in the world even in countries with more regulation, but if America fixed its market by lowering drug prices for Americans, the total profitability of pharmaceuticals would decrease, decreasing the incentive to create new pharmaceuticals. That's a totally different and very plausible impact. Rising drug prices for existing drugs in other countries is not a plausible impact.

You think pharma companies won't bill the rest of countries whatever the market can bear? I can't think of why they possibly would lower their prices even if the American government stops subsidizing their businesses via using their monopoly on violence to enforce our perverted IP regimes.

>If America prohibited such gouging, would the rest of the world accept price increases on their drugs? If the current administration is so interested in inflicting harm on the rest of the world, maybe they should be convinced to lower drug prices.

I doubt governments elsewhere are itching to increase their healthcare spending even more. Realistically speaking the actual result will be cost cutting from pharma companies, mostly in the form of lower R&D spending for new drugs.

Seems like an interesting hypothesis to explore.

You didn't provide any context of why you think that could be the case or the mechanism through the alleged subsidies happen.

The sad reality is that if Americans stopped paying inflated prices the 40% of drugs discovered here would shrink to about 10% and world wide drug discovery would be massively reduced.

You literally have to get fucked or the world get fucked harder and drags you down with them. Same reason why NATO and the farm bill are good for America.

The greatest trick from the wealthy is to not just exploit you to get it, but to destroy any possibility of resistance to them. Even trying to resist does nothing but harms the under class even more than if you simply accept it.

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.“ - George Orwell, a communist/socialist

Edit: To the guy who claimed Orwell wasn't a communist, the POUM who he fought for in the Spanish Civil war was communist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POUM) and according to the soviet union was specifically trotskyist. If you fight for them you are a communist, even if and especially if you claim you weren't later in life.