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Capitalism thought Experiment 2: Son of the Thought Experiment
You are a microbiologist and a Capitalist, you are driven by Profit: you invent a vaccine and cure for aids. It is a pill. One pill and anyone who takes it's aids will be cured, and anyone who takes it will never get aids regardless of their previous status. It is easy to produce, and it's cheap to produce.
But wait: while you were inventing this vaccine/cure for aids, you invented a bunch of drugs that made living with aids bearable and prevented the symptoms from killing them, they can take your medicine once a month and live a full-happy life-but would not ever actually cure anyone. You can make this cure/vaccine available and turn a tidy profit, or you can sit on the drugs and become a billionaire. What do you do? |
You know... if those people could live happy and fulfilling lives while having AIDS and it not affect them because my once a month pill can keep them going, I'd rather invest in their condition and turn a continual profit that will never end.
It'd be business suicide to solve problems like that. |
Congratulations on being a son of a bitch.
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That's just business and it's not wrong to turn a profit like this! Those people are perfectly fine living with their AIDS.
I'll release the cure on my deathbed. That's perfectly fair. |
Excuse me, congratulations on being an EPIC son of a bitch, you vile inhuman cretin.
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No! I am going to enjoy the fruits of MY labor! I wont let some parasite like you tell me what to do with my product!
Besides, if I don't do this, my competitor will! |
I will kick you right IN those fruits.
Your competitor has also developed the cure for aids. He is in your office. You have a gun. You are motivated by profit. What do you do? |
Corporate espionage.
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Corporate espionage IN THE FACE.
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I got a cadre of paramilitary troopers outside. Best soldiers money can buy.
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Do you work for Coca-Cola?
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Lets make-out.
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BISON!!! BISON!!!
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This is delicious.
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I remember seeing in one of the batman superman animated films released in the last decade, they covered this exact scenario briefly. Lex Luthor was in his office when a scientist told him they developed a cure for aids, Lex then ordered them to stretch the cure out into a series of multiple expensive treatments.
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I release the secret of the AIDS cure and live forever off the fame of being the Scientist who killed AIDS. Money can't buy that kind of fame.
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Shut up! I'd totes be a celebrity, damn you!
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However, from the sound of things, dude had a good life. He is also a new entry on my list of people to hi-five if I ever get a flux capacitor installed in my car. -- When news of the vaccine's success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker", and the day "almost became a national holiday." His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" In 1960, he founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, which is today a center for medical and scientific research. He continued to conduct research and publish books, including Man Unfolding (1972), The Survival of the Wisest (1973), World Population and Human Values: A New Reality (1981), and Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason (1983). Dr. Salk's last years were spent searching for a vaccine against HIV. -- |
There are some people in this world who ARE motivated to do great things, not because of profit (such as the fascists would have you believe), but by the sheer fact that the human soul is imbued with a creative spirit that can't be denied.
With people like that, you can only conclude the innovation is beyond the concept of profit. |
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