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Comment by bottlepalm | Hacker News Reader

Like education, government involvement only causes prices to go up. Why wouldn't they? The government has unlimited money. The education and healthcare industry beats the government like a money pinata.

Why would you suggest more government to a government created problem? Usually because people don't realize the government as the root cause in the first place. Get the government out, let people actually pay for their own health care, so they actually 'care' what they're paying. Use insurance for the exceptions cases. And social programs for the people who really can't afford it.

Capitalism actually works if you let it.

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> Capitalism actually works if you let it.

Right. This is why drugs like BPC-157, mentioned above, go for $25/month. There's a lot of competition on the gray market, and often the only way for vendors to differentiate themselves from the pack is on pricing, so drugs rarely if ever sell for more than double their manufacturing cost.

In the world of legitimate patented pharmaceuticals, the manufacturing cost is not even a consideration. It is often -- as it is here -- less than a single percentage point of the sale price.

> government involvement only causes prices to go up

This is so hilariously wrong I'm not even going to address it.

Give me a break. Inflation, housing, healthcare, education, I can go on and on. You have no argument.

You either pay for things up front with taxes, or you pay for them later by way of inflation. There's no free lunch.

The government has chosen inflation. Really at this point they'd save money by shutting down the IRS, dismantling the entire tax system and just pay for things by printing what they need. Inflation is the ultimate flat tax.

> Capitalism actually works if you let it.

This argument is always that if the government would just step out of the way the private market would provide for everyone and there would be full employment. As though somehow things like minimum wages and OSHA are what keep capitalism from reaching its full potential. As though things were better in the 19th century.

I've read Friedman and Hayek. The world they wanted is a terrifying world indeed.

Nothing wrong with minimum wage and OSHA. When the government creates a level playing field, capitalism can flourish.

When companies stop competing with each other, and start trying to suck as much money out of the government that they can - that's when things fall apart.

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