Follow

People keep saying that the macro-problem with for-profit medicine is that the financial incentive is to go on treating the problem forever without curing it, but it seems to me that this also applies to car mechanics, contractors, janitors, and basically every other profession that ever fixes anything, ever.

Not to mention those of us in the sysadmin or software dev trade, who can - let me assure you - go on turning your problems into a greater variety of more interesting problems basically *forever*.

I presume there is something that has stopped me from doing this. I wonder what it could be?

@cerebrate Probably factors including honor, in addition to usual things such as wanting to look good to hiring groups.

@cerebrate that first paragraph made me laugh so loudly that I startled one of the cats!

@cerebrate the whole “vaccines cause autism” myth can be traced back directly to a pharmaceutical company paying Andrew Wakefield to publish a fake study connecting the MMR vaccine to autism.
So they could sell three separate vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella instead.

@zarpaulus

Well, that’s an allegation I hadn’t previously heard and which seems absent from the usual sources. Cite?

@zarpaulus

Doesn't mention "a pharmaceutical company paying Andrew Wakefield to publish a fake study connecting the MMR vaccine to autism [et seq]".

I've done a little digging but don't have time to pursue every reference. Do you have a pointer to something covering that aspect in particular?

@zarpaulus

There's ample documentation of Wakefield and his bent solicitor having a scheme to _set up_ companies to sell single vaccines etal. and profit from the created scare, but that ain't the same thing at all. Grifters incorporate all the time.

@zarpaulus

But assuming it arguendo, it’d be the same sort of argument against for-profit medicine as Upright Sal’s Transmission-O-Mat paying a mechanic to sell overpriced replacements is against for-profit car repair.

Isolated examples are isolated. Every business has its crooks.

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Mastodon

a Schelling point for those who seek one