• Telorand@reddthat.com
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    24 hours ago

    No, you got it. It’s not about prohibiting profit, it’s about preventing the exclusive ability to profit.

    Think of generic medicines (in the US) versus brand equivalents and how vast their cost difference is.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      Which is reasonable in principle, but when they sell the exclusivity, they’re and to put that money back into their research expenses.

      I’m okay with public money going to funding research projects that become private profit for a limited time. I’m a capitalist system, which is what we’re operating in, this seems to be the most effective. Government partially funds otherwise unprofitable R&D, companies make the product, and ordinary people are able to buy it at reasonable prices, and once exclusivity ends, anyone can make it.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        20 hours ago

        That would be great, except in the US, that exclusivity can last for decades, which means entire generations will come and go before it becomes public.

        In a better-regulated system where consumers are put before corporate interests, it could work, but the US hasn’t been that for a long time.