Projection. In reality, your country is being anally probed and you actually defend it. Add something to the argument for once, instead of acting as a cheerleader on behalf of others.
I'm a bit surprised by some of these responses. Even some of my libertarian friends have supported government-funded research. It's just about the only government spending they do approve of. Research on something like cancer involves a huge amount of upfront costs, and there is no assurance that even a portion of those costs will ever be recovered. Private companies would not be spending much on cancer research without the help of government, because very few have the tens of billions of dollars needed for research. Sure, they might find a cure and make a trillion dollars, but the odds seem to favor no cure and the company going bankrupt. I think we need the government to seed this kind of research, but we need to revamp our patent system so the government actually gets back some of its money when that research does succeed. The government should work like a venture capitalist, except with a greater tolerance for risk.
There is already plenty of money in the cancer industry and they have no trouble asking for more. Cancer struck my family but it was caught early. Once caught, the patient was told a small bit of tissue would need to be removed and some minor follow up treatment would be needed. Then the referrals and testing began. After ten appointments and board reviews all things pointed to removing a bit of tissue and some minor treatment afterward. This kinda reminded me of how stock brokers used to try to churn clients from stock to stock. I was wondering if they were giving each other kick backs. Then one final appointment, with the chemo salesman ....errr...oncolgoist. He took five calls during the appointment (had to get things cleared before jetting off for a vacation) and of course recommended chemo. The chemo wasn't taken but the bill for all of this was $5000 out families pocket and a 5 figure dollar amount out of the insurers coffers. I don't use foul language but when we got a note from the cancer vulture charity afterwards I said to myself "You greed #$%@&$ #@#$!" and thought of the surgeon racing out of the hospital passed the family waiting to hear how things went, glad I tackled him, hey the golf course will still be there 2 minutes later. The cancer business needs to set aside its own profits for R&D. We should supply them with pork.
No. The blame for oil prices is not solely on bush; many factors are included... Most importantly when referring to oil prices, you need to understand their accounting method. Most industries use a FIFO (first in, first out) method, while the oil industry uses a LIFO (last in, first out)... That generates what seems to be amazing profits, even though they need these "profits" to pay for the new reserve replacements... Anyways, back to cancer funds. Yes, clinton added a butt load of money. And bush left most of it in tact; but not all of it. He cut the funding. That's what this thread is all about. My person opinion is, that it was a big mistake. Whether you agree or not, the fact remains, bush cut the funding... Gtech, I'm not saying this is the case, or trying to say you're wrong; but it is ok to not agree 100% with a certain party...
Agreed. If more people had closer experiences with the disease, I think they would see that this is an issue worth funding... I don't believe any drug companies would foot the SUPER ENORMOUS bill to do honest research without any kind of subsidization... If we want the cure, to a disease that seems to be infecting more and more people, we need to fund it..
See: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/NCI/research-funding It's pretty hard to find decent information on the actual cancer research budget, but it looks like the overall yearly budget has been decreasing... If you go to that site (the national cancer institute) you'll see the numbers shrinking... So it seems to be an actual budget decrease as opposed to a less-then-projected budget decrease... I'm still looking for more information though...
You missed my point, the cancer business has plenty of money. Nobody ever wants to point a finger at the greed of doctors, they get plenty of money out of patients, medicare, insurance companies, freebies from the pharmaceutical industries, comp from each other (tax free), etc, ask them to do some pro bono work in research and have them donate to funds to help out the families they financially profit from. Let them foot some of the bill that creates their profitable industry, the government (my taxes) doesn't need to do it.
Ohhh... Haha, yeah I missed that completely... I see what you're saying... While it seems like a logical scenario, I don't see this happening... Too many doctors, hospitals, and research labs have far too much money... I believe they would be able to buy enough politicians to stonewall something like that...