"If you're so smart ..."

    “If you’re so smart …”

   “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?”  This is the quote most often used by the simple majority of our nation’s population.  It implies major stupidity on the part of the questioner.  The best example of this is the Trump Monkey, Elon Musk.  Jumping around on a campaign stage with a chainsaw in your hands and a MAGA cap on your head does not indicate “smart”.  No, being the richest person in the world is a better sign of insanity.  Extreme wealth is an indicator of greed and greed is a rapidly growing epidemic in America, the major symptom of which is squirreling away nuts for an imaginary winter.  Greed is the malignant form of the survival instinct, not an indicator of smart.

   We only have thirteen billionaires living in, as President Trump would say, “The Shit Hole State of Arizona,” in which I reside.  Thirteen isn’t very many, but the state’s government and education system still runs (as do all other states in America) to the music of money.  What started as a game for students to relax with, basketball is now the guiding force of the University of Arizona.  Basketball brings in money and education is generally a cost.  Please remember that the stated purpose of a university is to educate and yet our basketball coach has an annual salary of $3,700,008 and the President of The University (the head of education) is salaried at $1,016,018 per year.  That is to say that the chief educator earns less than a third of what the top coach makes at our university.  This is certainly in line with our nation’s interest.  Would the average Arizonan be more enthused by winning an NCAA Championship in basketball or the hire of the world’s brightest physicist to head the Physics Department at The U?  What about money’s influence on government.  I spent a couple of years as The Arizona Motorcycle Dealer’s lobbyist to the Arizona Legislature.  Financial power is the primary influence on the creation of legislation.  Does money write “smart” legislation?  The answer to that question is, “Only if a benefit to the wealthy happens to benefit all.”  That doesn’t happen very often.

  “Our government is the best government that money can buy.” and I guess that we can all be proud of that.

Cheers, Old Buz          5/18/2025

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Draconian Pharma

Draconian Pharma

   I live by the grace of a drug marketed by AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.  You and your children will die by their hands.  The vehicle that will be your demise is called greed.  It is the driving force behind many other drug companies as well.  Here is my and your story.  I told the story in a previous blog, Golden Goose Economics, but I employed satire to tell the tale.  Satire is a language not understood by some, so here is the threat without satire.

   In 2009 my annual blood tests showed that I had CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) a deadly malignancy.  It remained in the “wait and see” stage until in 2019 the lymphocyte count went up to stage three.  At that time my oncologist recommended a drug called Imbruvica (the generic name is Ibrutinib) at a cost to Medicare of 195 thousand dollars/year/patient.  It required that I pay a three thousand dollar a month copay.  I don’t have three thousand dollars a month over and above my living costs.  So, I turned the offer to extend my life down.

   Soon after my turn down I received a call from a foundation ready to pay my required copay.  The young woman asked me what my annual income was, and then said that I had qualified for the assistance.  I have applied for many financial programs in my life and have never had one approved without income verification.  This fact prompted me to ask, “Who funds this foundation?”  She confirmed my suspicions by answering, “The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.”  I understood that the Pharmaceutical (AbbVie) had priced the drug so high that the bulk of the potential patients could not afford the copay.  And, they would receive their donation back from the foundation when the copay was returned.  This draconian plan was probably engineered by Richard Gonzales, CEO of AbbVie.  The CLL organization estimates that there are presently, approximately two hundred thousand Medicare patients with CLL.  With this number of clients AbbVie would recover its investment of twenty one billion dollars for the patent rights of Ibrutinib in about a year and a half.  This is an excellent return on investment and spells out the end of Medicare.  There are other pharmaceuticals joining the program.  The financial success is no secret among them.

   Who is to blame for this egregious future ending of Medicare?  Let’s start at the bottom.  I am.  I am willing to participate in this scam so that I may live longer.  Next up, my oncologist.  They do not prescribe the drug without knowledge of the preceding events.  They could try to change it with their powerful AMA lobbyists.  But, in the short run, if they like being willfully blind, the drug offers effective patient care.  Next up, the pharmaceuticals and their lobbyists, they fully understand the game.  The CEOs like Gonzales are so infected with greed (the malignant form of self-preservation) that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their children and their children’s children.  At the top of the corruption are your elected representatives.  They are the folks that create and enforce patent rights.  You elected them to serve the people, not the soulless wealth of the nation.

   What are patent rights?  They are designed to protect the rights of the creator of a desirable product and to reward the toil of a creator.  When Celera Pharmaceutical sold Ibrutinib to Pharmacyclics for three million dollars it was probably for a fair profit and to a company capable of logistics required to produce and distribute the product.  Then Johnson & Johnson paid Pharmacyclics for its patent rights $975 million.  Are you starting to smell a foul odor?  The next transaction has AbbVie paying $21 billion for these patent rights.  A billion is a thousand millions.  Twenty-one of them is going to result in a very high price for a lifesaving drug.  Are we dealing with greed now or protecting an inventor?  The purpose of any law is a shield for those in need of protection, not a sword for the greedy.  A well written patent law would protect the creator and perhaps a distributer with the purchase at perhaps 15% over the book value of the company, but no protection to a third purchaser.  This would be fair and effective.  With the large dollar influence on those who govern us, fair and effective is rare.

Cheers, Old Buz                   December 4^th, 2023

Remember:

“One cannot fool all of the people all of the time … and that is why we have two political parties.” - Anon                                                                                                                                             

"Get Over It"

“Get Over It”

G O I, or “Get Over It” needs to be the mantra of the Trump Republican Party.  It needs to be a slogan on their ball cap, T-shirt and bumper sticker.  What better message could there be to the Trump voter?  Mick Mulvaney said it in reference to the quid pro quo that President Trump offered to the president of Ukraine, in a request for aid in his 2020 election, in exchange for military aid to Ukraine.  In a moment of truth, Mick Mulvaney said it to instruct the press and the American people.  It is a request by Mick, not to dwell on the character of the President or his misdeeds.  Move Along!  Mulvaney, before entering The White House staff, had said that Trump was not fit to be president of The United States and that he would hate to see Trump as a role model for his children.  I guess he now sees Trump as a good role model for all of America’s children.   Strange how fame and fortune can alter vision and change the direction of a moral rudder.  “Get Over It America” (dumb yourself down).

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But, character does matter, in our president.  His character reflects on the decisions he makes every day for the nation he leads.   When he abandons our allies, the Kurds, to die in Syria, where they had, with our assistance, defeated ISIS on the field of battle, it matters.  It reflects on the moral character of our nation, when before being elected, he stated that he could grab any woman’s “pussy” because he is a star, and yet was elected.  Character does matter and it is reflected on our nation by his every act.  He is our leader and a man of low moral character.  Hopefully of the lowest moral character that will ever occupy our White House.  “Ever” is a long time, but for now he has set the bar level as the “Greatest” low life to hold the office of President of The United States.  Perhaps our Oath of Allegiance needs to be modified to … “One nation under Greed, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

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If we choose to be willfully blind and GOI, we give up the soul of our nation.  Remember well and build on the memory.  Without learning from our past, we have no hope for our future.

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Please don’t G.O.I., hold on, Old Buz   10/19/2019

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