Davka
Senior Member
We are experiencing a global crisis caused directly by capitalism, and solutions are not forthcoming because capitalism provides no incentive to research and create those solutions. The problem? Antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains.
How do these strains occur? There are three major culprits, each one market-driven. First, there is a high demand for antibiotics among consumers, many of whom are poorly educated and have no idea how antibiotics work, or how misuse of antibiotics creates precisely those environmental pressures which will cause bacteria to evolve resistant strains. Many people don't bother to finish an entire course of antibiotics - instead, they stop taking antibiotics as soon as they begin to feel better. And many patients will essentially demand antibiotics from their doctors, regardless of what sort of infection they may or may not have. Since our medical system in the USA is a capitalist marketplace, doctors have learned to hand out antibiotics freely if they don't want to lose patients.
Secondly, there is a high degree of antibiotic use in the livestock industry. These antibiotics are not being administered primarily to fight infection, or even to prevent possible infection. No, the primary reason that livestock factories use antibiotics is that healthy animals who are given antibiotics grow faster and fatter than those not given antibiotics. In an industry which rewards on a per-pound of flesh basis, this means that the market (except the relatively tiny boutique "organic" market) demands that farmers feed their animals antibiotics or be out-competed by those who do. And the antibiotics used in livestock production are administered in such large quantities that there is a constant excess "overflow" into rivers and lakes, exposing more bacteria to low-level doses and encouraging the emergence of resistant bacterial populations.
And last there is the market mentality of antibiotic manufacturers, whose primary goal is to sell product, not to responsibly eradicate disease. So they sell antibiotics in hand-soap, diaper-wipes, dish-soap, plastic containers, and over 700 other household products.
The capitalist marketplace has inadvertently created the perfect environment for the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
But wait - it gets worse.
Because the global drug industry is market-driven, drug manufacturers are concentrating R&D on high-profit products. Things like acid-reflux medication, antidepressants, nutritional supplements - in short, any medication which consumers will buy and use on a daily basis - are far more profitable than antibiotics, which are are taken for a week and that's it. So drug companies are simply not interested in developing new antibiotics. There's not enough money in it to make it worthwhile.
The solution is, of course, a socialist/government-driven one. Moving to a single-payer system (like every other industrialized nation has) in the USA would remove the market incentive for doctors to over-prescribe antibiotics. Shifting drug R&D to the public sector - or, at least, creating a significant public-funded drug R&D program, aimed at creating unprofitable-but-needed products - would counter the "profit uber alles" motive of the global drug market. And strong legislation to stop the abuse and overuse of antibiotics by the drug industry and the livestock industry would stop the counterproductive flood of antibiotics into the environment as a whole.
Capitalism is a useful tool in many ways. But when it comes to situations in which the public good is pitted against private profit, the market fails us utterly. Free marketeers might not want to admit it, but their "invisible hand" is a greedy, self-serving one which cannot deliver the solutions we so desperately need, unless there is profit to be made. And in far too many cases, there is no profit in doing the right thing.
How do these strains occur? There are three major culprits, each one market-driven. First, there is a high demand for antibiotics among consumers, many of whom are poorly educated and have no idea how antibiotics work, or how misuse of antibiotics creates precisely those environmental pressures which will cause bacteria to evolve resistant strains. Many people don't bother to finish an entire course of antibiotics - instead, they stop taking antibiotics as soon as they begin to feel better. And many patients will essentially demand antibiotics from their doctors, regardless of what sort of infection they may or may not have. Since our medical system in the USA is a capitalist marketplace, doctors have learned to hand out antibiotics freely if they don't want to lose patients.
Secondly, there is a high degree of antibiotic use in the livestock industry. These antibiotics are not being administered primarily to fight infection, or even to prevent possible infection. No, the primary reason that livestock factories use antibiotics is that healthy animals who are given antibiotics grow faster and fatter than those not given antibiotics. In an industry which rewards on a per-pound of flesh basis, this means that the market (except the relatively tiny boutique "organic" market) demands that farmers feed their animals antibiotics or be out-competed by those who do. And the antibiotics used in livestock production are administered in such large quantities that there is a constant excess "overflow" into rivers and lakes, exposing more bacteria to low-level doses and encouraging the emergence of resistant bacterial populations.
And last there is the market mentality of antibiotic manufacturers, whose primary goal is to sell product, not to responsibly eradicate disease. So they sell antibiotics in hand-soap, diaper-wipes, dish-soap, plastic containers, and over 700 other household products.
The capitalist marketplace has inadvertently created the perfect environment for the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
But wait - it gets worse.
Because the global drug industry is market-driven, drug manufacturers are concentrating R&D on high-profit products. Things like acid-reflux medication, antidepressants, nutritional supplements - in short, any medication which consumers will buy and use on a daily basis - are far more profitable than antibiotics, which are are taken for a week and that's it. So drug companies are simply not interested in developing new antibiotics. There's not enough money in it to make it worthwhile.
The solution is, of course, a socialist/government-driven one. Moving to a single-payer system (like every other industrialized nation has) in the USA would remove the market incentive for doctors to over-prescribe antibiotics. Shifting drug R&D to the public sector - or, at least, creating a significant public-funded drug R&D program, aimed at creating unprofitable-but-needed products - would counter the "profit uber alles" motive of the global drug market. And strong legislation to stop the abuse and overuse of antibiotics by the drug industry and the livestock industry would stop the counterproductive flood of antibiotics into the environment as a whole.
Capitalism is a useful tool in many ways. But when it comes to situations in which the public good is pitted against private profit, the market fails us utterly. Free marketeers might not want to admit it, but their "invisible hand" is a greedy, self-serving one which cannot deliver the solutions we so desperately need, unless there is profit to be made. And in far too many cases, there is no profit in doing the right thing.
