This post contains the third video in my dark side of economics series. This video takes a look at health and how economics is being used to benefit both Government and large pharmaceutical companies at the expense of the general public.
It is often said that prevention is better than cure. I would like to expand this saying to ‘prevention is better than cure and cure is better than treatment’. This is absolutely true from the perspective of the patient. This logic holds less true from the perspective of Government and large pharmaceuticals and even other large companies as I will explain later.
From the perspective of pharmaceutical companies treatments generally offer the highest profit. Treatments allow a continuous flow of income to the pharmaceutical company. An example is radiation therapy and chemotherapy for cancer. Treatment lasts for months with no guarantee of full recovery. Treating cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are countless other treatments that reap enormous profits for pharmaceutical companies.
Cures can also be profitable but if they are very effect patients will recover too quickly thus ending the flow of income. Cures are less favourable than treatment. Prevention on the other hand is least favoured as people do not fall sick to begin with and therefore very little money is made.
Government strongly favour treatments. Treatments allow governments to spend money on treatment facilities, hospitals and clinics. Governments can be seen to be helping the sick by providing these facilities and hence seek praise and popularity. The absence of sick people means the Government will not be able to offer solutions, they will not be able to appear to be generous by offering new facilities.
Other industries such as the meat and dairy, alcohol and cigarette all contribute to health problems. These health problems benefit government and the pharmaceutical companies by providing a stream of customers (patients). Alcohol and cigarettes are not banned but instead taxed. This has limited effect on consumption as both alcohol and cigarettes are addictive and not price sensitive. The tax collected provides another good revenue stream for the Government.
The meat and dairy industry is actually subsidized by the Government. This has helped prevent meat alternatives from being able to compete on price. If all costs (both external and internal) were factored into the price of meat and dairy, meat and dairy would struggle to compete with plant based alternatives. Plant based alternatives are healthy and less likely to cause disease and illness; this is supported strongly by scientific evidence. For more information watch documentaries such as ‘forks over knives’ or ‘What the health’.
Vaccines are considered by many as a prevention of illness and disease. Vaccines are pushed strongly by government as being essential to being healthy. Over the last 100 years, the world has experienced less disease and reduced likelihood of premature death relating to disease. Vaccines are given significant credit for this. But the decline in disease aligns far more closely to improved hygiene and sanitation than the number of vaccines pumped into our body. Mortality rates from diseases were declining rapidly before vaccines were introduced in any significant quantity.
Vaccines have also been strongly linked to the increase in allergies, autism and several other childhood medical problems. The number of children with autism has increased dramatically since the introduction of vaccines. Parents have reported the symptoms of autism occurring not long after vaccines have been administered. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is typically cited as being a major culprit. The documentary ‘Vaxxed’ provides evidence of the link between autism and the MMR vaccine through studies initially covered up by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
It is not surprising that vaccines are strongly supported by governments. If vaccines are making children sick with disorders that require lifelong treatments, governments will get support to build care facilities for these children and eventually for adults as well. Pharmaceutical companies can make more money from developing new drugs. Government and Pharmaceuticals do very well but the people will suffer far more. This is a very dark application of economics but is very logical for those that desire wealth and power.
A way we can break this system is to focus on prevention ourselves. We need to not consume meat, diary, alcohol, and cigarettes. We should not blindly allow poisons from vaccines to enter our bodies or our children’s bodies. We should stay away from or at least limit our intake of processed foods even plant based ones. We should not rely heavily on pills to cure or treat all our alignments. We should look to more natural remedies. We should aim to have a less stressful lifestyle which includes plenty of exercise and activity. At the end of the day it is our responsibility to look after our own health and bodies. It is also our responsibility to research anything that we put into our bodies and not rely purely on medical practitioners.
This brings me to the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I have many more videos and posts to come in the Dark Side of Economics series.
The full video can be watched using the following link:
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I provided a number of video references in this post. Trailers to these references are provided below. Some of the videos can be watched in their entirety on YouTube while others are available at websites or on Netflix.
The preview/trailer for vaxxed is available at:
The preview/trailer for forks over knives is available at:
The preview/trailer for what the health is available at:
