Reflections

Regarding understanding

Do not cry, do not be outraged. Understand

Baruch Spinoza

 

Regarding what corporations gain using lobbyists

In 2003, the US pharmaceutical industry successfully pressured for revision of Medicare the health insurance program for elder people. This included incorporating a new benefit on prescribed drugs but no measures to control their costs. John Friedman, economist from Brown University, estimated that the resulting benefits for drug manufacturers over 10 years added up to US$ 242,000 million dollars, an excellent profit over the US$ 130 million that the industry spent in lobbying the year the law was approved.

The Economist, September 16, 2016

 

Regarding what everybody knows

Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes

Leonard Cohen