I have long thought about this and seen time and time again how companies get a slap on the wrist if they do something illegal, I mean the entire world economy collapsed which devastated millions worldwide because bankers got greedy playing with other peoples money yet nobody went to Jail same goes for those who hide data and release dangerous drugs into the public sphere yet it’s the companies that get a fine but there is zero accountability from the people who actually inflicted the damage. The more I think about capitalism the more I believe it’s inflicting suffering on an immeasurable scale that cannot be contained anymore.
It will destroy itself eventually…If Germany had won the war wonder how it would be? Isn’t Merck a German company??
@Blueryan123 I wouldn’t say it’s capitalism, just regulatory capture and poorly designed rules. Governments need to make sure that no individual company’s profit motive weighs heavier than the public interest. Many countries do this well (mostly in Northern Europe), but the US has gotten worse for a while, mostly because the money people gets to select who can stand for elections. And the money people represent the interests of large companies and financial institutions.
Laurence Lessig is much better at explaining this, BTW, in case you’re interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igc_1TPfK9Y
I totally agree. Capitalism has corrupted every social bond.
And I disagree with Lessig, since: how can we have an active regulatory control (of the FDA, of the EPA, etc.) if government agencies can easily be corrupted with money? The only way to avoid corruption/greed in a capitalist society is by having angels running the government, and unfortunately this is impossible… Regulatory capture is a consequence of capitalism.
The rule of law does not apply to some people.
China has the right idea when it comes to dealing with corrupt people in the pharmaceutical industry.
It’s kind of like a millionaire who was caught speeding and got your standard UK speeding fine which would be nothing to him so he doesn’t learn his lesson and carries on speeding despite the law because he can afford it. Companies have now grown to a point that they can literally choose who they want to be president, change society how they want and the rules that go along with it. The world is fucked in terms of global warming every day I see something new about it it’s already reached a tipping point of no return that’s just one point about capitalism that’s enough for me to agree it’s evil.
Hes almost dead now I think hes in his 80s.
This is the guy who invented Finasteride.
He looks like notorious child molester Jimmy Savile.
Haha he fucking does too. It would not end well for him if he lived on this island I promise you that. These men need to pay!
I hope hell has a special room for this “champion of philanthropy”!
It’s as if humanity had been eaten by corporations: we work for them, we die for them… But their main strength is their biggest weakness: people.
Merck must have known from the beginning that Finasteride was causing persistent problems. Can’t we find a whistleblower from inside the company? I bet that if we give them an email address, we may receive details of hidden results, experiments, etc. sent by anonymous workers at Merck.
Employees are the key link here.
Exactly as it happened with Google recently:
I really like this idea but how would we find previous employees that worked at merck and co?
Kevin Malley was the (brave) guy that started a hunger strike in Merck’s headquarters in 2012 (info below).
That was a unique opportunity to hand out flyers to Merck’s employees asking for information and hidden data. But today we should think of digital means (social networks).
I like your thinking we could type merck and co into facebook and see if any employees pull up it gives you that option to look for friends at workplaces.
I’d say his "philanthropy” was only done for PR reasons.