Dead by shortage of $50

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I point out how a man died because he was $50 short of his insulin goals.
You point out "supply and demand", even though the company could have easily turned a prophet without price-gouging to life-threatening extents.
Intentionally or not, knowingly or not, you are saying that the profit motive of the drug company is more important than human life.

[Admiral X]

No, I'm pointing out that businesses don't stay in business if they give away product for free, or even if they simply don't charge enough to make a large enough profit to pay off their own expenses. I then went on to point out that part of the reason for the high price could also be due to artificial reasons thanks to a lack of competition caused by government regulation - a sentiment I've repeated when others have commented along those lines. In response to this, you've pretty much just insisted that conservatives believe this man deserved to die.

[The Romulan Republic]

Not here, perhaps, but their are doubtless Right-wing trolls on other sites who would.

I know you like to envision your political enemies as mustache-twirling cartoons, but they aren't. No one would say this guy deserved to die.

Um... people do say shit like that.

Maybe you haven't personally, but you know, your "circle the wagons" attitude toward any criticism of anyone on the Right isn't doing you any favours.

Maybe fewer people would view the Right collectively as a collection of greedy, bigoted sociopaths, if the Right didn't almost invariably rush to defend even its worst members against any accusations, and portray said accusations as just hostile propaganda.

If you don't share their views, then their is no reason for you to defend them, other than tribalism.

And, frankly, it is a logical extrapolation of Right-wing economics, which are predicated on the belief that you should have to work to earn things, even things that are necessary for life, like insulin, rather than getting "handouts".

Maybe put your own money where your mouth is before you start criticizing others for not wanting to pony up themselves.[/quote]

Not that my finances are any of your damn business, but I do donate frequently when I can afford to do so (I am by no means wealthy myself, and am likely not living on the street only by the generosity of family). So I do, quite literally, put my money where my mouth is, to the limited extent that it is practical for me to do so.

I would also like to note that I recently got warned and topic-banned for making assumptions about the intent behind someone's posts, but I very much doubt that you'll get so much as a warning for making assumptions about my actions so that you could paint me as a self-righteous hypocrite.

[Admiral X]

Um... people do say shit like that.

I guess I haven't seen any examples. I can't think of why anyone other than a cartoonishly evil person would say something like that. even the rich Randian types would strike me as more apathetic than anything.

Maybe you haven't personally, but you know, your "circle the wagons" attitude toward any criticism of anyone on the Right isn't doing you any favours.

I was reacting more to what seemed like a suggestion that businesses should essentially give away the stuff they sell for free than anything else.

Maybe fewer people would view the Right collectively as a collection of greedy, bigoted sociopaths, if the Right didn't almost invariably rush to defend even its worst members against any accusations, and portray said accusations as just hostile propaganda.

Partisanship is hardly unique to the "Right."

If you don't share their views, then their is no reason for you to defend them, other than tribalism.

Not that my finances are any of your damn business, but I do donate frequently when I can afford to do so (I am by no means wealthy myself, and am likely not living on the street only by the generosity of family).

You actual finances are of no matter to the point I was making, which is that it is extremely easy to throw shade at others for not giving their own money while not being philanthropic yourself. You have no idea how many people I've seen do so, since, after all, they're poor and therefore it's not up to them to give any of their money away.

[Fixer]

Just coming into this one from an outside perspective from the UK.

Here we do have insulin supplied on the NHS, though more expensive solutions such as pumps are mostly private as the various NHS authorities have their own budgets/processes and you probably don't qualify. You still have to pay for many drugs you are prescribed though, I had to pay for a week's worth of antibiotics for an infection I picked up last month after a day of frankly terrible service at my local GP... which I can't do anything about changing because I'm outside of the catchment area of anywhere better. In fact, the local health authority was once rated the worst in the country.

It's all a lottery depending on your location.

In addition, you still get quite a few stories of individuals being denied life saving medicines because they are too expensive and having to source them elsewhere.

This is why I still have private health insurance in addition to the NHS.

The Insulin and pharmaceutical question still pops up since the tax payer is footing the bill. The NHS has several very specific procurement requirements and with restricted suppliers, corporations can effectively charge what they want (until caught).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... ig-pharma/

Still, despite this I am well aware that UK spending on health is about half of what it is per capita in the States. For all it's flaws the UK system is still better value for money.