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Comment by german_dong | Hacker News Reader

"Tremendous societal cost" is putting it uncharitably. My country was built on the financial incentivization of patents. I can think of several economies with an open disregard for patents, even some where the state assumes ownership of all innovation, and I'm happy I live in one where IP hoarders like The Walt Disney Company continue to thrive.

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It's less of a big deal when we deny Disney movies to kids when they could watch them for free.

But it is a pretty big deal when we deny medicine to sick children (or push families into taking on crushing medical debt).

Probably at least several million people annually are killed to maintain your financial incentives.

That's right, but HN clapback derangement syndrome compels me to state another obvious fact of life.

Profit motive is the singlemost powerful motivator for the pharmaceutical industry. Take that away, and let's see how many smart, hard-working people work their butts off to rescue sick children.

You could tax people according to their means, record usage, multiply by impact, and disperse accordingly. Set guaranteed purchase orders and x-prize style payouts, etc. Hard but not impossible.

Maybe we get a few less drugs but I'd bet we'd see more curative cheap drugs we need desperately like antibiotics which are an economic dead-end today rather than the cost escalating for-life stop-gaps like statins, diabetes drugs, biologics, ed drugs, hair treatments, etc.

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