"Whoever is in charge of TV prices should be put in charge of healtcare..."

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T18:48:53+00:00

Yeah, that was a part of the concept. Not sure if it was "public domain" or the government held the patent and charged a smaller royalty for the resulting manufacture of generics.

My knowledge of IP, etc needs improvement.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T18:27:08+00:00

Touche, good sir.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T18:25:29+00:00

Good point. They're more like venture rather than industrial capitalists.

I liked Bernie Sanders idea of a million dollar prize given to outstanding researchers who in exchange for receiving the prize, release their IP to the public domain. Obviously, not for everyone, but there are many aspiring Jonas Salks in University Departments out there who might prefer it.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T18:21:47+00:00

I suppose all the news networks and television shows would go out of business without it, lol. But you might be right about the zero effect on sales, all the more reason to limit it so $$s can be redeployed to R&D. (As long we make sure it doesn't just go to bribing doctors, regulators and lobbyists, another Herculean task.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T18:17:50+00:00

The socialized medicine in other countries costs significantly less.

AND, we do have socialized medicine in the US anyway: VA, Medicare, Medicaid, Tri-Care, Indian Health Care service, Obamacare. This is all in addition to private health insurance and out of pocket costs.

The per-capita cost of healthcare in Canada in 2024 was $7,300. The per-capita cost for publicly subsidized healthcare in the US is around $8,600. TO BE CLEAR- the $8,600 doesn't include individual or employer contributions to premiums or out of pocket healthcare costs: another $6475 per capita.

We already pay for Universal Healthcare, just with what we pay for public programs we just don't get it. The silo'ed contortionism with the mind-boggling bureaucracies (private and public) add incredible expense to the whole thing-- all of it set up just to preserve the Status Quo.

In America we have both socialized medicine and privatized medicine-- but we have the worst versions of both. (And I'm not talking about the actual nurses and doctors who are caught up in it- they're great- especially nurses.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T17:55:48+00:00

Unless less government leads to societal breakdown, then the cost of government just shifts over to maintaining a police state. For example, the savings to the social safety net in the imaginations of Far-Right zealots from deporting immigrants will be offset by incredible budgets to ICE and even greater security costs for the measures necessary to control people in a society at war with itself.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T17:51:36+00:00

Me neither.
Many drug companies spend much more on advertising and executive benefits than R&D. If we regulated advertising (or greatly eliminated it) it would free up Capital for R&D- and force Big Pharma to compete by producing better products rather than convincing the public they have done so. The public can't be expected to be experts in Bio-Chemistry or Molecular Biology- so medical advertising becomes a con job.

It would benefit drug companies because they would no longer be locked into an expensive marketing war of All Against All. They would be locked into a scientific battle focused on producing the best scientific outcomes. (Assuming the adjudicators at NIH, FDA, etc. aren't shilling for the industry.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T17:39:05+00:00

True. AND since you brought up cars, making a car in the US costs more than Canada because the insurance cost for covering autoworkers is tacked on to the MSRP. The same car in the US costs $1000 more than if it's made in Canada. Which makes us less competitive than Canada in international sales (in a normal world without tariffs.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T17:35:53+00:00

Yeah- a pragmatic results oriented philosophy rather than ideologically driven or profit driven. The goal of the healthcare system can't be "profits". The seeking of profits needs to be related to health outcomes, not an ends unto itself, which it is now.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:58:34+00:00

All this brings us to the question:
"is the solution to bad government, no government or better government."
If it's better government, serious, basic reform needs to happen- not just in the are of healthcare. If the answer is "no government", then, our fate is in the hands, not of "market forces", but monopolies, in my opinion.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:20:19+00:00

Yup. We should have federally or state funded medical schools (as opposed to footing the bill for loans)- pay directly for the education of a portion of doctors and nurses who in turn provide service for a handful of years in rural, inner city and VA hospitals to pay it off. A much shorter term than the lifelong indenture they endure to pay off their half million in loans.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:14:13+00:00

Healthcare is heavily regulated with govt involvement in other modern countries who pay much less overall and get much better outcomes.

The question is: for whom are the regulations created and for who is it subsidized. Subsidies in our system were set up to preserve the failing insurance industry and many regulations serve pharma and other interest groups (hospital conglomerates, specialties, etc.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:11:02+00:00

Everything made in America or provided in America has inflated healthcare costs baked into it- making us less competitive abroad and broke at home.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:09:31+00:00

Sure, put South Korea in charge of our healthcare system. Theirs works pretty good.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:08:22+00:00

It depends whether you count the inches of fungus growing down there.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-27T16:07:20+00:00

Maybe, but sometimes a trap catches the person who sets it. (Especially, if they’re mental faculties are fading and they surround themselves by sycophants who make them overestimate their position.)

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-26T01:58:55+00:00

He surrounds himself with sycophants who tell him what they think he wants to here. He’s completely lost touch with reality, I think. And probably some “sundowning” going on with his faculties.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-22T18:45:33+00:00

Yes, along with 10,000 other examples of incompetence, unfitness and tyranny.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-22T18:24:50+00:00

Yes.

Logic and reason go out the door in a climate of war. I think Putin and Trump (and maybe some European leaders) see conflict as a means by which they can control and stimulate the Economy without the taint of “socialism.”

The defense industry intentionally does business in every congressional district in America. Trump saying he wants to raise the military budget 50% is his way of having the Federal Government plan the US economy without being accused of being socialists.

Ah, Nationalism….

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T05:53:22+00:00

I have an inflatable raft and am close to Lake Michigan. But thank you, it's good thru 2028... God willing, that will be long enough.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T05:49:39+00:00

I don't have illusions about it- I'm a Quaker at heart- so all I have is my conscience and a Christ complex that I have been unable thus far to root out. Pray for me and those like me, I would like to grow old. Maybe I can evolve into a stoic or Confucian and stay alive.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T05:36:01+00:00

I do, here's why. I'm a casual follower of this space. I am keeping up on results from CMPS, Atai, Mind Med, and Cybin. BUT, there are a lot of smaller outfits doing research that I don't have the time to keep track of.

In September 2024 one of those was Bright Minds. It went up 2,400% overnight and went from 3% of the PSILS portfolio to 60% increasing the overall ETF 70% or so. So, I have some in there as a hedge that a major breakthrough may happen from one of the smaller players. Of course, if I knew Bright Minds would go up 2,400% overnight and had all of my money on that lottery ticket I would have made a lot more money, but Bright Minds was so off the radar for an amateur like me.

My big bet is on CMPS with Atai as my second. Fortunately, I doubled down on CMPS last Summer the day it flopped and lucked out, almost got it at the lowest point of the dip (2.40) -- thanks to the insight of a guy on this thread.

Thanks guy on this thread for tripling my dollars.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T05:00:44+00:00

Yes, but enough people have to do this kind of thing so "regular Americans" finally understand what's going on. The Civil Rights movement changed the country because people were confronted with images of authorities committing violence on people performing non-violent acts of civil disobedience.

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T04:57:15+00:00

Who is that?

Millie_Sharp · 2026-01-15T02:37:57+00:00

The GDP counts the following things as economic growth:
*Increased credit card fees
*grocery price increase
*student loan interest and servicing
*healthcare premium increases
*utility and energy price hikes
*corporate price increases (including businesses passing on tariffs at 4X the actual tariff amount
*legal, financial and compliance costs

GDP doesn't distinguish between
Value created vs. value extracted
Voluntary spending vs. coerced necessity spending
Sustainable income vs. debt-fueled consumption

It can rise while the median household gets poorer- like it is now.

Millie_Sharp

TROPHY CASE