I see Wonderland’s Aneconomic Caucus, ten “liberal US Senators,” according to the Associated Press, have demanded that President Biden “prioritize people over pharmaceutical company profits” by waiving international intellectual property rights rules.
The group of economic illiterates, including the usual suspects Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, Sherrod Brown and Richard Blumenthal sided with India, South Africa and “more than 100 nations” who want access to the intellectual property that made the COVID-19 vaccine possible. Without compensation, of course; those who seek the information don’t have much money, and “big pharma” owns it. So they must hand it over.
President Trump gave us COVID vaccines by a simple expedient: allowing pharmaceutical companies to operate without the usual crushing regulations and guaranteeing enough sales to make their research, yes, profitable. As a result, we received multiple effective vaccines in a timescale most of our political class said was impossible because they willfully fail to understand how free market economics functions.
Now, the naysayers want to punish the developers for their success, forcing them to surrender techniques and knowledge they spent time, energy and treasure to develop, in expectation of future benefit. China, and every other cheap knockoff drug manufacturer is salivating at the prospect of the forced transfer these economic illiterates embrace.
Here’s another principle the Aneconomic Caucus should study, and hard: once burned, twice shy. If pharmaceutical companies are indeed forced to hand over their hard-gained knowledge, what makes this crowd of virtue-signaling clowns think they’ll be around the next time their expertise and abilities are needed? Or maybe they just don’t care. After all, as Senators they are all well-heeled and well-connected enough to weather most any storm.
But the rest of us who aren’t, should worry. And act accordingly, come election day.
