Reply #23: It's like arguing with a crazy Libertarian, but I repeat myself

[Orrex]

Hallowed be The Free Market, the cure of all ills! What a crock of shit, no matter who puts it forth.

The consumer is often insured, and pays less than the market value for pharmaceuticals. Also pharmaceuticals are patented and therefore have monopoly prices built in--way more than herbs, etc. When pharmaceutical companies advertise, it is to a consumer that generally pays a lot less than the price of the drug.

Did you mean "a lot more" in that last sentence? If not, then I think you changed gears in a way that really changes your argument.

Anyway, a patent is not a monopoly in the sense that hegemonic market-control is a monoploy. A patent is the protection of intellectual propery. Is an author a monopoly because he owns the copyright on his novel?

OF COURSE PEOPLE CONSUME HEALTHCARE. WE ARE CONSUMERS OF HEALTH CARE.

And that's the Libertarian angle. Are we consumers of police protection? Are we consumers of national defense? Are we consumers of public highways? Is the beneficiary of a trust a consumer of that trust? Are we consumers of the above in the same way that a guy buying a cellphone is a consumer?

If that's your view, then I have no interest in arguing this point with you, because I know from experience that once a person has sipped from the golden freemarketeer's chalice, there's little chance that reason, logic, or evidence can reach the person anymore.