Meanwhile, 10 euros per vial here in Europe. At least his original plan for widespread and easy availability has partially succeeded.
In civilized countries at least.
In brazil 36 reais (about 6 euro). The US is a joke. (And im 99% sure you can also get it for free if you use the public health network)
I have mental health disabilities in the USA and my meds are at zero cost because I literally have had absolute zero income for the past 5 years.
You wouldn’t believe how much those mood stabilizer/antidepressant cocktails stack up proportionally when I was able to scrape by on $15 an hour.
The system set me up to fail with how shitty it is, if healthcare wasn’t crap I could be contributing to society without crippling myself.
Even worst, my dog got it for free from the public vet university for years. They even gave us the syringes. It’s the same human insulin and my dog got it for free. Guess his plan worked better than he thought… only no in the us
Free on the NHS in the UK. In fact, diabetes is one of the conditions that qualifies people for free prescriptions across the board.
It did succeed, humanity just didn’t take the win and run to keep it going.
Please support the Open Insulin Foundation who are creating an open source model for insulin production! Such an important project!
Capitalism is economic terrorism.
It’s almost like someone should go and shoot the CEO dead in the street
One could argue that patents and copyright are anti-capitalist
They are, actually. The point of patents and copyright is not to protect the creator- that’s a temporary effect. The point is to release the thing to the public afterwards. The problem is that capitalism corrupts the process and finds ways to make the temporary effects permanent. Disney has succeeded in making copyright last effectively forever.
Copyrights and patents generate enormous amounts of wealth from rent seeking. This wealth has been used to continue to entrench these draconian concepts into our legal and governmental systems.
Even worse they have been used to stop the spread of information and monopolize development thus slowing down technological advancement. So many people have died so these clowns can make a buck.
One could argue that artificial scarcity is a farce, but unless you have more money than the people who benefit from IP, your voice will not be heard on a policy level.
So, you agree patents and copyrights are contrary to capitalism and free markets?
Personally, I think that if small business capitalism actually existed then it would run contrary to that.
There would be no need for copyright or patents. These systems create artificial scarcity which hinders society as a whole to benefit a minority.
I feel like our existing system of laissez-faire capitalism fully embraces the rent seeking found in intellectual property.
I think there is a balance to be made. Some anti capitalist measures are needed to encourage innovation. But the use of patent laws as a defence, or copyright to seek excessive rent are far too aggressive.
If there is any chance of reform it would have to still appeal to all parties. We definitely need to think about solutions that have not been proposed before.
As much as I would like to advocate for abolishment of IP, I recognize it is an unrealistic demand.
After all, IP didn’t magically appear. It took hundreds of years of court cases and laws passed to get to the arguably ridiculous point we are now.
I like the idea of having to pay a fee to retain copyright. And that fee doubles every year.
It starts off low but after a decade or two it becomes more economical to let the copyright lapse.
Patents should be scrapped completely.
If there is any chance of reform it would have to still appeal to all parties.
There’s nothing such as change that appeals to all parties; that is not how that works. Change, good or bad, is forced by one segment of society over another, doubly so when it’s against the interests of the ultra-rich. Don’t compromise in advance.
They are literally monopolies on whatever they concern.
Correct. Patents and copyrights are state granted monopolies that are in direct opposition to free market forces that capitalism thrives on.
Sure, everyone should work for free except you, of course.
Patents only last 15 years. why isn’t the government making insulin.
Your affection for patents does not disprove my original statement.
And no capitalist would want to get rid of them.
Sam Altman very much wants to get rid of copyright.
In that case “real capitalism” doesn’t exist, because patents have been a thing since checks notes 1474.
Anti free market policies can exist within a capitalist structure.
Historical existence of patents doesn’t destroy capitalism, nor make patents less anti capitalist.
Okay here’s the thing: Calling policies that contribute to monopolies anti-capitalist makes no sense, because by this standard capitalism is anti-capitalist. It’s not like monopolies appear out of thin air; concentration of wealth into monopolies or oligopolies is the only possible equilibrium state under capitalism, so deflecting the effects of these monopolies as “anti-capitalist” is an appeal to fiction.
It’s not like monopolies appear out of thin air;
For patents and copyright this is exactly what happens. Adam Smith’s invisible hand of capitalism does not create these monpolistic protections naturally. They are an artificial construct of government. An enforced payment by society to creators and inventors.
Technically a funnel system for 1%.
I’m not diabetic and the situation with insulin fills me with a white hot rage.
Same
Canadians: invented drug and patent it freely
Americans: Finds way to kill the most people possible while making the most amount of money
To be fair, the killing isn’t the point; they’re the product. Its just that profit is God, so killing in its name is justified.
Killing poors for the joy of it? That’s just an evil bonus.
If you talk about killing the few people like these that are the root cause of all these problems, you’re a terrorist. You go to jail
These people actually kill people by the thousands, millions, and we call them smart CEO’s and celebrate them 🥂
Free Luigi.
There is plenty of propaganda on social media to exalt the billionaires and CEOs. Instagram is especially really bad at it. I don’t know why the algorithm suggest heavily to me about “entrepreneur” pages (maybe my investing platform sold my data), although some of these pages whitewash literal fraudulent and underhanded behaviours from celebrity CEOs and fraudsters, spinning their past behaviours as “another way to get rich”. I also think the posts and profiles were written by bots, because the language and syntax used sound almost identical from one another, in spite of these profiles supposedly being independent from one another.
Where’s all the promo for hard working Italian plumbers these days?
Remember Remember the 4th of December
I genuinely think that in some third world countries, as part of the middle class, you can have a better life than in the USA.
Something I’ve noticed is when untraveled people in the USA try to contextualize themselves with other countries they pick the worst examples they can think of. Favelas in Brazil or slums in South Africa for example. We do this to the point where our entire conception of countries (or in the case of Africa, continents) is the worst imagery we can think of. I think they genuinely don’t believe that, for all their troubles India, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, etc also have smartphones and big buildings and libraries and universities and laboratories, and educated people living decent lives.
They also can’t see how the overcrowded jails full of pretrial prisoners, the barefoot children carrying buckets for water in Appalachia, the rundown schools full of illiterate kids, the impunity of rich private interests, the corrupt sheriffs and judges, and on and on, puts us in the company of the “third world countries”. Yes we have nice places too, but SO DO THEY. A broken society in the 21st century isn’t people living in mud huts, it’s children shitting in the street next to a glass skyscraper with LEED Platinum certification.
And it’s not just “overcrowded jails full of pretrial prisoners, the barefoot children carrying buckets for water in Appalachia” but the grad students in LA living out of their cars, or grandpa sleeping on a bus stop, or people in the Rockies surviving off roadkill and forage.
Seattle tent cities/tiny homes make some Favelas look real swanky.
Logically, it’s not about how much money you make, it’s about purchasing power. It is irrelevant if you earn only $400 a month when you can eat well for $1 and pay $100 for your housing, you have free health care and education. That is the reality in some third world countries.
Third world doesn’t mean poor, it just means not aligned with US or Russia
Espousing an old no longer relevant definition to sound smarter and be “right” is peak lemmy/reddit behavior. Third world does mean poor now.
It doesn’t. It never did.
It does. Strictly it does. Why do you think china is no longer considered third world?
Strictly, technically every other way China is still third world. This concept of third world being poor seems to have originated from the common charity ads in the 90s and 2000s who loved the phrase, and from the American exceptionalism that thinks everything not American is dirty and poor.
Being poor is the only way a country is third world or not. Being politically related to America is not relevant to the present definition. So no, it is not “technically in every other way”. It just is not a third world country, period.
No one really uses that word in its Cold War context anymore. It’s the common term for “developing countries” and the like.
People believe that only because they haven’t learned what it actually means.
You’re right that they either never learned what 1st-2nd-3rd world really means, or they forgot what they were taught in history class. Unfortunately it still is the main term to refer to poor countries even though it’s incorrect. Language seems to be biased towards the common meaning over the technically correct meaning.
Spain isn’t third world, it already had shown the middle finger to Trump and also has few to do with Rusia. Third world countries don’t certainly mean people starving, the people there often have all what they need, but this, you’ll see few Ferraries there and chalets with swimming pool. Someone is rich, not necesarly because a lot of money, but because he need only few. We often enter in a rabbit hole of the consumism, spending a lot of money in things we really don’t need, we work like a dog to have enough money to pay a journey to Hawaii to recover us from the burnout, which we wouldn’t have working less, no needing this journey.
Have you been to Spain? I’m not saying it is not better than where the US is headed to, but it’s a “western” country in Europe, with all the issues that come with it. Somewhat social market economy, but still suffering from the usual issues, including people driving Ferraris while others sleep on the street.
Also, at least since Franco I don’t think anyone genuinely thinks of Spain as third world.
Well, I’m from Spain, also in Spain there are People with Ferraries (few) and also poor people, but there is nobody without food, because Spain has a strong social system and free healthcare for everyone. Nothing, absolute nothing to do with the US, it’s the opposite in almost everything. Luckily Spain has also little dependency on the US or Rusia, so it is also not much affected by Trumps Tariffs or Rusian Gaspolicy. Trump hates Spain.
If you can eat well for $1 then it is definitely a poor country relative to the US. Differences in purchasing power are a direct result of differences in wealth.
I think that the US is a third world country, it’s rich but most money is used for weapons and to make richer the billonairs and big corporations, in the social and cultural sphere, it is one of the most backward in the world. Now with Trump the US is turning in a running gag for the most countries. A country where 40 milloncof citizen don’t have enough to eat at least 2 times a day, isn’t a rich country.
I really should just put a full block on lemmy.ml. Thanks for the reminder!
Usa is the hub of first world. Russia is the second. Thirds is everyone else.
USA is an total dystopic country, any Banana Republic has more culture. US is only powerfull because use all the money for weapons, developed by foreigner scientifics. First world is anything else.
You will say that the US is a first world country, it’s better for your health
There’s a reason countries like Vietnam are so popular with digital nomads.
My dream would be to get a remote nightshift job and live in a house by the beaches of south Thailand
It’s also much harder to become a middle class in those countries.
Not really. Poverty rates are higher, yes, but many middle income third world countries do have sizeable and growing middle classes. They’re called developing countries for a reason. The image of war-torn African countries where everyone works in mines isn’t really representative.
I wonder if all the sane Americans did a mass exodus to Canada, Europe, UK, Australia etc, what effect that would have
A lot of us would need financial sponsorship. So there’d be a literal financial drain on those economies.
I still would like to sign up.
Not if you stayed, then it’s an investment. Money doesn’t just disappear when goes to poor people, they use it to buy things like food and stuff. It would only be a financial drain if you were sending that money back home.
The North American mind cannot comprehend the benefits of supporting the poor.
UBI should be ubiquitous.
UBI = Universal Basic Income
Amazing Americans say with their full chest this is socialism
Perhaps strain would be a better word than drain - it would still be a short-mid term financial burden to take even a tiny fraction of the sane population from the US, it’s a big country. Sure would be nice if it could be arranged though…
True.
Don’t worry, there aren’t that many sane people in the US. A lot of them are under the impression that they’re sane because they take the “balanced” position, though, which is to say that they just choose whatever’s in between fascism and barely progressive policy while they call themselves intelligent.
Frankly I’m not sure I’d want a bunch of people who cannot take accountability and who have such main-character energy they think that they would be allowed in while “bad” people wouldn’t be. We have enough problems with similar mindsets here in Canada and I really don’t want more of that except now they’re making it even harder to get away from our useless, conservative, Liberal(capital L) party.
Ah yes - subjecting ideological refugeess to arbitrary purity tests, a true classic.
Well that’s the thing, it wouldn’t be possible so the entire idea of “let us sane people come” is flawed from the start unless they truly believe that there should be a purity test and that they would pass it. Anyone who genuinely thinks that way should be immediately disqualified from immigrating based on their own idea of an ideological test.
“I’m different though and there should be actual, real laws to permit to do particular things!” is not the position of someone who considers their community at large to any particularly special degree. And to be clear I’m all for banning hate speech and stuff because that’s a specific banned behaviour and not a specific allowed behaviour, and we have evidence to show that it can be as harmful as any physically violent attack.
It would only be a financial drain if you were sending that money back home.
Only if you limit your view to your nation. ‘Back home’ across the border it would most likely also buy food etc. And that would be fine.
The real drain is the infinite black hole of the rich guys pockets. That is where all the money is. Don’t blame people who send money to their loved ones to help, just because there is a border.
I get that, the initial investment would be pretty significant.
I’m not against it of course, I just think it’s necessary to understand the risks of any gamble.
Have you looked into what it takes to get a permanent visa to one of those countries? It’s not easy.
Its prohibitively impossible.
Its not that hard especially for an American.
It is that hard, I’ve looked. You typically need to rank highly on a skill list AND have a relatively well-paying job offer. And if you think it’s hard interviewing in your own country, it’s far worse interviewing outside of it.
What are you comparing it to? Americans have a much easier path to permanent residency than a vast majority of the world.
Take a look at the skills lists they aren’t that insane. Also you dont need to go straight for permanent residency you can start with a working visa which is easy to get.
In comparison yes, it’s easy. In practice it’s far outside the means of the average American. Hell, more than a quarter of all households in the US are living paycheck to paycheck right now. That’s effectively impossible.
I did it a while ago, would recommend.
Aren’t you still paying taxes to the USA? Just curious.
You have to earn over something like 100k+ for the US to tax you. Salaries are lower here.
Ohhhh that’s interesting.
You still have to file, but you don’t need to pay taxes unless you’re earning enough that the visa won’t be a problem.
But, like, if you close everything out and never go back…
The IRS will still find you lol
But then what?
Is a foreign government going to extradite you for missing paperwork and no outstanding tax debts (especially because everyone else thinks it’s nuts that we require nonresident citizens to file taxes)? I guess it’s possible, but it strikes me as very unlikely.
But if you’re still financially attached to the US/likely to visit, they’ve got some power over you.
I’m not a lawyer or an accountant (obviously. This is not best practices)
Why would that strike you as unlikely? It’s extremely likely because most countries that people would want to flee to already have extradition agreements with the US.
All the US has to do is declare you a fugitive and those countries will pick you up and ship you back.
Especially with how petty this administration has been.
It’s usually too expensive to justify pursuing international cases, nevertheless don’t fuck with the IRS lol. That being said, people moving abroad to escape debt, such as student loans is not altogether uncommon.
What do they get out of it? It’s expensive and you don’t even actually owe money. Plus, extradition agreements only cover either things that both countries consider illegal, or a set of very serious crimes, like murder, afaik.
I hear ya but I wouldn’t put it past the government. You’re now a bargaining chip in future negotiations
It’s already happening, there’s been a deluge of affluent people leaving the US.
We’re still at the stage where it takes considerable privilege to just leave everything behind and pay the exit extortion (40% of all your shit).
Once things get worse and people have nothing to leave behind you’ll start seeing the engineers/doctors escaping.
Please no, there’s already people rioting over 3rd world citizens immigrating here, we don’t need to add Yanks to that group too
How is it even possible to afford $800 for insulin? It boggles the mind
Credit cards
California is contracting its own insulin supply and it’ll be available for $11 a pen starting Jan 1, 2026. I know not every state can or are willing to do this but just throwing out some examples and hopefully optimism to somehow fight the American decline from within it. We’re in a unique position as our state economy is larger than most countries but I am hopeful we will throw our weight around to counter the bs. https://www.chhs.ca.gov/blog/2025/10/17/governor-newsom-announces-affordable-calrx-insulin-11-a-pen-will-soon-be-available-for-purchase/
Seems like something other states should get in on. Now that the program is established seems like it would not be as hard to pay into it and get a share of the product.
But that’s socialism! /s
contracting is an interesting choice of word since it could mean decreasing
That’s called a homophone.
Well typically it’s said “contracting out” when they mean making contracts
For Australian diabetes patients the insulin Fiasp is $31.60 on the PBS, but Americans pay $930, while the medication Jardiance is $619 to $698 in the US compared to again $31.60 for the 220,000 Australians who access it. (I’m on Jardiance)
Damn, the Jardiance in America must be some strong shit!
Naive question from a european: Aren’t there companies on the market who can offer a cheaper price and therefore beat greedy competitors?
You’d THINK capitalism would cause that to happen, wouldn’t you?
Doesn’t work when people don’t get to choose not to take it when it gets too expensive! That thing that capitalists always forget about: necessities.
A lot of the benefits people associate with capitalism require a free market. The US problem is that the megacorps have gotten sufficiently powerful to abolish that free market through regularory (and legal) capture, enabling entrenched monopolies.
Look, mate, Intellectual Property Laws are literally the government creating and giving somebody an artificial monopoly on something which would not naturally exist if it wasn’t for artificial limitations on “doing the same thing” being forced on everybody thanks to legislation and the coercive powers of the Legal system, and this was purposefully written in Law to do exactly that, so it’s not an unexpected legislative side effect.
So anywhere were Intellectual Property legislation can apply the market is not free, on purpose and by policy.
Now, a good argument can be done about how IP law incentivises the creation of things with a high utility value which would otherwise not be created, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the whole thing is a giant legislative sledgehammer with massive destructive capability for both the Economy and people’s lives, which needs to be handled very carefully in order not to do more harm than good.
As it so happens IP has gone completelly out of control in the US because Corruption there is incredibly high, more some when it comes to the property of ideas since holding a piece of such property can yield billions of dollars in profits - the profits from owning ideas can be far vaster than of merelly owning land - and this shit has been copied around the world by almost as corrupt politicians (for example, the thoroughly corrupt crooks in the EU commission pretty much copy every single “this will make me personally lots of money from thankful corporations” pieces of legislation from the US).
So Copyrights now last an insanelly long period - about 1.5 times the average human lifetime - before things covered by it go into the Public Domain, whilst lots of Patent Offices (most notably the ones in the US and Japan) will just accept patents on everything no matter how obvious without even a proper search for prior art, hence things like the “round corner button” patent that Apple has as well as countless business patents for “solutions” which are obvious to any domain specialist (many such patents literaly the product of paying a domain expert for an hour of their time by a patent troll to just “think up a solution for this” as no actual implementation is needed to get a patent, just the idea of how it could be done).
All this to say that this fucked up situation of insane government-given monopolies all over the place for shit that’s obvious to domain experts or derivative (a common trick in patents for medicine is to just do a small tweak in the formulation to get another 25 years of patent protection on pretty much the same thing) was created ON PURPOSE by the very politicians who claim to want a Free Market.
The entire thing should be reviewed and ajusted in exactly the opposite direction it is going (so we should have shorter protection periods, no “ideas only” patents, proper prior art searches rather than relying on expensive court cases to nullify patents on things somebody else already did or which are common practice in that industry, no business patents, properly funded Patent Offices, no transnational recognition of patents - so that countries *cough* Japan *cough* can’t just use their Patent Office as some sort of commercial weapon to benefit their local companies in other markets - and so on) but given that Intellectual Property is an area worth trillions (and, remember, it’s entirelly artificial, so without that legislation such property would be worth nothing at all) and politicians are incredibly corrupt nowadays, this shit is getting worse rather than better (and, IMHO, severely slowing down the speed of progress in the current Era versus a Free Ideas system)
Sectors like pharma require enormous R&D budgets. If you have a free market with many companies, each company will have only a tiny marketshare, and therefore only a tiny budget. So you can’t do without the megacorps. The solution is for the megacorps to be run by the government / non-profits / trusts, or, if that is not possible, for prices to be fixed by an independent regulatory body.
What USA is experiencing is feral Capitalism.
That’s certainly how capitalism is marketed, isn’t it?
It is widely available, just not in the US
Invented by a Canadian, exploited by an American.
