"Under the market system, there is demand for a product if a lot of people want it - but that demand counts for nothing if those people have no money. If they lack money, their demand essentially doesn't exist...This explains why the drug industry is not investing money to develop a cure for a disease known as sleeping sickness, which leaves its victims in a coma. The disease...killed 66,000 people last year and threatens to infect 60 million more - but the only people who are afflicted by it are poverty-stricken Africans with no clout in the marketplace. Interestingly, there is a drug called eflornithine that is effective in lifting victims out of their comas. But drug companies stopped producing eflornithine in 1995 because it was no longer profitable to continue. The drug was still desperately needed, but only by people without money. So, following modern market practices, these people were simply left in a coma."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Social criticsColumnistsPolitical authors from CanadaNon-fiction authors from CanadaJournalists from Toronto
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Linda_McQuaig
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Linda McQuaig
19 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Linda McQuaig →
Related Quotes
"The public-choice theorists would have us believe that nobody ever gets involved in governments or the political aren…"
"Private courier companies are fine to handle the lucrative parts of the [postal] business. But they have little inter…"
"Utterly left out of Tax Freedom Day [a holiday marking how many days an average person must work before his or her an…"
"Despite loud complaints from members of the financial elite about high tax levels, it's interesting to note that they…"
"Those tempted to slough off the helpful role of the state [in the earning of private property] should... "compare the…"
"[[George W. Bush|[George W.] Bush]] explained that he wasn't willing to take the steps outlined in the Kyoto accords …"
"All our confidence in our ability to act collectively is being undermined, with the subtext message Whatever it is, t…"
""Short-term inequality remains a problem," writes [right-wing scholar Dinesh] D'Souza... "but is it a problem we can …"
"Not only has capitalism failed to bring us to the brink of a scarcity-free world, but in a sense, you could say that …"
"[A]s things now stand, the case that capitalism will make the world - not just the West - materially better off has s…"