Rick, it'd hard to move fast with PD, but good luck, The drugs don't help me
so I don't take them. Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick McGirr" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: Drug Company profits


> In spite of the claim below, I continue to assume that the oil
> companies are willful participants in the raping of the consumer.
> Every time there is a hint of a supply glitch, the price goes up
> immediately.  I never notice the price go back down with such speed.
> It would take a lot of convincing to get me to agree that they sit and
> wait for the Saudis and Venezuelans to decide their level of profit.
> I'm thinking the oil biggies will seize any opportunity, even a
> national tragedy, to pump more profits out of our pockets.  Call me a
> cynic.
>
> I am planning to reduce my family's dependence on foreign oil and on
> global corporations.  I'm selling my house in the suburbs, which were
> designed around the car, and going back to the city where I grew up.
> And I'm waiting for an affordable hybrid vehicle while I board
> Buffalo's infamous 'subway to nowhere'.
>
> It's too bad I can't do the same with drugs.  In the future I will
> need more and more.  The limitations of capitalism really surface in
> the health care industry.  What's in the future for me?  Probably I
> will be sucked dry by hospitals, neurosurgeons, drug companies, and
> some nursing home, if they can catch me.
>
> Enjoy Fall!
> Rick McGirr
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "K. F. Etzold" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 12:09 AM
> Subject: Drug Company profits
>
>
>> There is one of those entertaining ads in todays NY Times by
>> ExxonMobil
>> on the editorial page. It explains that oil companies make only
>> average
>> profit (2Q 2005), pre Katrina. But that is only part of what got my
>> attention. Wanna know who gets the highest profits? You guessed it,
>> Pharmaceuticals at 18.6% profit, right after number one, Banks with
>> 19.6% profits. So there is part of the reason why drugs are so
>> expensive.  So don't get sick.  Now, rounded,  1/5  profit ain't
>> bad.
>> All US industry has a 7.9% profit.
>>
>> I guess both drugs and energy have a rather inelastic demand ie. a
>> small shortage drives the price up very steeply, which is what we
>> are
>> seeing now in energy. An interesting sidelight is something I heard
>> today on NPR (National Public Radio). The statement was that the oil
>> companies do not control the price of their product, it is the
>> commodity
>> traders. So the oil companies apparently have only limited control
>> of
>> the prices. I have wondered why the oil companies cannot be public
>> minded and cut the prices; apparently they cannot because the
>> traders
>> drive the price up or down depending on the available supplies. So
>> the
>> oil companies now enjoy exorbitant profits because of the shortages.
>> Create a shortage ....
>> K. F.
>>
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