Reflections

– About an unbalanced intellectual-property system
– About religion and spirituality
– About the innovative State
About an unbalanced intellectual-property system

The US pharmaceutical industry, that carries significant weight regarding the United States Trade Representative, has managed to lumber other countries with an unbalanced intellectual-property regime, which, on account of trying to fight generic drugs, places profiting over saving lives. Even the United States Supreme Court of Justice has now stated that the United States Patent and Trademark Office went one step too far by granting gene patents.

Joseph E. Stiglitz

About religion and spirituality

Religion and spirituality are not the same. Religion is associated to the ecclesiastic institutions and is based on a faith dogma. Spirituality, on the contrary, is part of the universal heritage of mankind; it does not depend on believing in a particular deity, but on the experience of what is sacred that lies within each person, in every corner and instant of the universe.

Dalai Lama, quoted by Ana Maria Llamazares
About the innovative State

Why is the state’s role so important? The answer lies in the huge uncertainties, time spans and costs associated with fundamental, science-based innovation. Private companies cannot and will not bear these costs, partly because they cannot be sure to reap the fruits and partly because these fruits lie so far in the future. Government has increasingly accepted that it funds the risks of innovation, while the private sector reaps the rewards. What is emerging, then, is not a truly symbiotic ecosystem of innovation, but a parasitic one, in which the most lossmaking elements are socialized, while the profitmaking ones are largely privatised. Do ordinary taxpayers understand that their taxes fund the fundamental innovations that drive their economy?

Mariana Mazzucato quoted by Martin Wolf