Drugs have a cost. But at what cost should they be?

Imagine you are a parent. There is a sickness that affects children with a 90% mortality rate. The cure, a single dose of a drug, costs $5000 per pill. Do you buy the drug?

If you have any sense you probably didn't even think about the answer and shouted in your mind "Yes! Absolutely!" You would pay anything to get that cure. You would do this regardless of the cost even if it costs $10,000... $20,000... You get the point.

But why does this miracle drug have to have a cost? Why does ANY drug need to have a cost, for that matter? Especially if it would save countless lives?
Is there actually a win-win for both sides of the equation, such as the company workers that make market and sell the drug earn a living to provide for thier families and many children's lives are still saved (maybe not all lives, but a great many are still saved)?

And what if not everyone could pay the cost of the cure? What if the drug has a finite quantity? How does one decide who gets it (even if it was free)?

And why are companies allowed to 'own' cures to illnesses and keep a walled garden around them? Shouldn't cures belong to the world?

These are all very complicated questions.

Inventions are 'property', even life saving drugs. And people do have a protected right to do whatever they like with thier property. They can give it away, sell it, keep it to themselves, etc.

Yes it would be virtuous to donate the cure to the world. However it is not a good idea to just take someone's property by force even if it would benefit mankind... Right?
Also, we know that if you get something for 'free' it's value is virtually non-existent because it was handed to you. You took no responsibility in getting it.
If you received the drug for free would you truly appreciate it and be eternally grateful for your children having the cure? I do mean this seriously.
And we know that truly nothing is free anyways. Nothing.

We know that we cannot have a utopia. At all.

We know that utopia is fallacy. It is a false doctrine and can never exist because of human nature and behavior. You cannot control all humans. We are always changing. We all make our own choices in life. We know that utopian ideas only lead to tyranny.

I am struggling with and thinking about these ideas tonight.

These are all incredibly complicated questions to which I just don't know the answers.

I think it's worth thinking about these things.

  • Joey D