Colloquial Rants and Reasoning:End Civilization as we know it Part 3

Part 3 Medicine

Medicine

The pharmaceutical industry fits well within the moniker of predatory business. Sure, pharmaceuticals have improved and in some cases extended the lives of millions, but they have destroyed countless others. Often, prescription drugs are grossly under tested and dangerous side effects are not known until long after the drugs are widely prescribed. Class action lawsuits will not repair the damage wrought by these products or restore the lives they have taken. The industry fights these lawsuits and when it loses, rewards to the plaintiffs are mere drops in the Olympic sized swimming pools of big pharm profits.

Far worse than the dangers of under tested drugs is the toll of addictive pharmaceuticals. Accidental death from prescription drug overdose has quadrupled in less than a decade. Often these drugs are erroneously prescribed by doctors who either receive kickbacks from the industry, are too lazy to deal with their patient’s ailments or both. Those users who are not prescribed the drugs usually get them from people who are, so whether these products end up in their intended hands or not, the industry profits. The stigmatized status of addicts in society is no match for the industry’s lawful (not ethical) business practices. Poisoning consumers becomes more of a calculated business risk than a crime. This brings me to my next point.

Are healthy people fiscally healthy for the medical industry? Sure, there needs to be a positive impact on customers for the industry to thrive, but if we were all healthy, there would be little need for the industry. How is it right for someone to go bankrupt because the got sick or had an accident? Where is the humanity in draining a sick and possibly dying persons life savings and then some, leaving nothing to bequeath? How is it ethical to put a price on health at all?

I think civilization as we know it should end because within civilization medicine is an industry. I think it should end for cancer. Cancer, in some ways touches the lives of nearly every person on Earth regardless of race, religion, political affiliation or nationality yet we allow companies to profit off causing it and then it cost money for the research and development of treatments and cures. Nations should be uniting with extreme urgency to save Grandma, Grandpa, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Daughter, Son, Husband, Wife, friends, neighbors, etc. etc. with all they can muster, without a price tag , but we don’t. We adhere to the monetary system, the system of civilization above the survival of our loved ones and ourselves. The resources are there. The knowledge is there. But, apparently someone has to pay. Someone has to profit. This system does not work for us, we work for it.

Works Cited

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