Think About This One!!! It is Short but Very Interesting!

[kster]

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a free market.

A toy company can out source to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market.

A shoe company can produce its shoes in Southeast Asia and claim it's a free market

A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.

We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico .
We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh

We can purchase almost anything we want from 20 different countries.

BUT, heaven help the senior citizens who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called anti-U. S. and illegal and our politicians want to stop it!

And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby? Think again!

Show this to every person you know over age 50.
It is an interesting thought.

Maybe this is an issue that should come up in the next election!

Forget the 50, send it to everyone.
We're all in this boat together!
Even if you aren't in this boat now, you're standing on the pier.

[WCGreen]

1. Great point...

K&R

[calimary]

23. Indeed. A VERY great point.

K&R again.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

61. Applies to the JOB market too.

"Send 'em all back to Mexico" doesn't sound much free-markety to me.

[wildhorses]

2. K&R

:applause:

[Booster]

3. A very good point and one that I just don't understand. I know the

big Pharma companies have us all by the short hairs, but the others you point out just makes it that more blatant.

[terisan]

4. You are absolutely right-a violation of free market, as is refusal to let medicare price bargain

I've been trying to find an organization ready to do battle on these issues. AARP site is extremely disappointing.

[ooglymoogly]

29. AARP is no longer a true advocate for the elderly

they are in the insurance business and just about every other kind of business to exploit the elderly. it has been taken over by B*shbots and was one of the major supporters of the privatization of Medicare against the welfare of the elderly...they are taking money from the elderly and using it to stab them in the back...they have become extremely powerful collecting that little $12.00 from seniors and pretending they are their spokesman.

[Auggie]

35. So when will the Boomers start kicking ass?

[bpeale]

48. we've been kicking ass for 40 years...

i don't know about any of you but i'm getting tired & hoping our younng will step right up to the plate to continue the good fight.

[Auggie]

56. Me too. It's up to us to make change. We have the numbers to do it.

[napi21]

5. Add all the screwups of the FDA recently to those comments too!

It's the FDA who says drugs from Canada might not be safe! I still don't see a lot of Canadians dropping dead...do you? I DO however see dead dogs, sick and dead people, and potential sick or dead kids from their toys here in the US!

[liberal N proud]

6. It only make sense in the neocon republicans and those

who they have brainwashed.

Other than that it is totally absurd.

[bleever]

7. Don't forget the outsourcing of our voting machines.

Great post.

[kster]

8. And the Country that builds OUR vote counting machines, refuses to use them

in their own Elections.

I wonder if Homeland Security knows about this? :)

[Triana]

13. AND the outsourcing of maintenance of our infrasturcture - bridges, etc. (n/t)

[Ino]

9. excellent point (n/t)

[autorank]

10. This is just outstanding. K*R

Why have I not heard this particular argument before.

It blows away the restrictions.

Sure it's OK to eat food from other countries (unless your a dog) but it's not OK to
take medicine where there's actually an inspection process in place.

Amazing!

[Norrin Radd]

11. k+r

[tecelote]

12. Excellent - K&R

[Triana]

14. Didn't the AARP support the Medicare Rx Drug Plan?

I think they did. If so, they need to see this too.

[kaygore]

27. AARP sold out on the RX Plan

[Faygo Kid]

37. AARP backs importation completely, and has been fighting Pharma on this one.

They don't have big Pharma's money, but they have the members - who vote. Anybody who's a member knows that importation is a huge issue for AARP.

[bpeale]

50. that's a lie

AARP was FOR the medicare drug bill. that's why i resigned my membership. they do not represent me.

[Faygo Kid]

51. It's not a lie. And don't call me a liar.

AARP is for importation. You can look it up. Yes, they supported Medicare D, but they also were key in stopping the privatization of Social Security and they back Dorgan-Snowe and drug importation.

You can resign from whatever you damned well please, but watch your acccusations about accusing people of being liars when you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

[Pastiche423]

54. Pardon me?

Where were you in November 2003? AAARP screwed seniors and the disabled w/their backing of the idiotic Medicare bill.

In the days and weeks following the bill, the AAARP website was flooded w/furious members. Thousands upon thousands of members ended their membership w/AAARP.

I will never forgive that insurance organization for what they did. If they favor immportation, then it's too little too late. They screwed themselves.

So, who doesn't know what the hell they are talking about?

[Faygo Kid]

58. Who asked you to jump in?

I was accused of lying. I didn't, I simply said AARP supports importation. I never expressed support for their Medicare position. Now you have to jump in, too?

I'll tell you who doesn't know the hell what they are talking about - Pastiche423.

Nasty crowd here on this one.

[Pastiche423]

59. No one asked me to jump in

I can speak my piece just fine.

The reason for the nasty crowd is because of AAARP's action's wrt the November 2003 Medicare bill. This is a small sample of how angry they have made members.

[bpeale]

57. I know very well they were FOR that stupid bill which penalizes seniors

they are no friends of seniors. they have their own agenda which has nothing to do with supporting seniors or giving them a voice. when they do exercise their voice, they ignore you. that organization should go down.

[Triana]

53. My Mom said the same - they supported it - she cancelled her membership too

She's 80 and she was SO mad when they came out in support of it.

[applegrove]

15. Good catch.

[snappyturtle]

16. K&R My brother is a doctor in ND. He says they're phasing out

prescription pads.....all prescriptions done on the computer. I asked him how it was working and he said it is a mess. Is this a way to force citizens in North Dakota to buy there? I'm sure many cross into Canada for their prescriptions. When I lived in MN there were bus loads of seniors going over the border for medications.

[hvn_nbr_2]

17. Being for a free market is just like being for "states' rights"

It's a mantra that applies when they want it to and doesn't apply when they don't want it to. None of them were ever generally in favor of free markets or states' rights--those were just convenient, nice-sounding excuses that they offer for greed or racism.

[galloglas]

18. K and R !! Medicare Part D is part of the obscenity

Few have realized yet that one of the greatest boondoogles in this whole Big Pharma mess is when it has been cross-bred with the Insurance Industry.

Rather like crossbreeding the monster from "Alien" with Jon Lovitz with an insurance license.

All of these companies that are "selling" the Part D plans, and the Managed Care Medicare through Medicare are working on commission to sell the largely non-discounted services.

Try calling up "Center for Medicare Services" sometime and ask about "enrolling" a parent in one of these programs. You will be sent a packet that contains "rate comparisons", but then to buy these plans, they connect you with the insurance companies themselves and the "insurance agents" (the phone operators, oftentimes) sell what they want.

It is as if the US Government were doing their advertising for them!!

[lisa58]

19. Really good point.

[dog_lovin_dem]

20. Outstanding point.

Do you mind if I send this to everyone in my address book?

[kster]

42. Absolutely send, and

Welcome to the DU.

[dog_lovin_dem]

52. Thanks!

I've been lurking since shortly before the 2004 election. DU has helped me keep my sanity through these insane years.

[Colorado Progressive]

21. HMO lobbyists are the same way!!!! k+r

[djp2]

22. Corporate Free Markets

Free market for corporations , not for you and me!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

24. Already gave this a Rec.

Time for a big ole :kick:

The hypocrisy is astounding.

[Auggie]

25. K & R !!!!!

[BlueEyedSon]

26. There is no such thing as a free market. All markets exist within the context of

govt fiat currencies, regulations, contracts & contract law, taxes/tariffs, etc, etc (not to mention no-bid contracts)

Any claim to the contrary (that a market can be "free") is fiction.

[annabanana]

28. It's good because it's easy to understand.. and it effects millions

of people every day. It's not the people who are free in a "free market". .It's just the influence.

[uberllama42]

30. It's not just Big Pharma that has a powerful lobby

All of the free market examples you listed are powerful evidence of the influene of corporations in our government.

[Maestro]

31. I like it.

Why the hell didn't I think of this?

[pnorman]

32. THANKS!

I just reposted that verbatim on my union's BBS, on a thread about the movie "Sicko!".

pnorman

[pnorman]

55. From my union BBS where I had reposted this several hours ago, came this:

"I passed this one on Paul. It's a keeper."

pnorman

[L0oniX]

33. Damned drug dealers anyway ...CVS can go f*ck itself !

[K8-EEE]

34. Oh and don't try to get medical care in Cuba!

Or you'll get arrested. They hate us for our free-dumb!

[NotGivingUp]

36. great post! n/t

[Faygo Kid]

38. The bill is there - Dorgan-Snowe, bipartisan. But it was shot down this summer.

It will be back after the summer recess, count on it. It actually passed attached to another bill, but a rider was added by a GOP senator providing that the Sec. of HHS would have to certify that each imported drug is safe - which ain't gonna happen, and that killed the bill. The idea makes sense, but Pharma has two lobbyists for every member of Congress. Can't think of when they ever lost on anything, but that day is coming.

[DeSwiss]

40. With that kind of logic then, the next time....

....the bill comes up and that rider is attached, then another rider should be attached as well. Making the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S Trade Representative responsibile for insuring that ALL goods from China are safe BEFORE they can be sold here.

- We really, really need some new CongressCritters.

K&R!!!

[treestar]

39. We could outsource too if we wanted

We don't have to buy stuff from the big corporations.

Interesting how we let marketing affect us, but if we wanted to, we could go out of our way to buy from some other company.

Though one thing we never notice is that the opposite happens too. Does anyone quit their job at the Honda factory because it really belongs to a Japanese person, or quit a job at IKEA because it belongs to a Swede? Yet by the same logic we complain about outsourcing, it is true.

With the internet, we could buy and sell directly from people in other countries or other states and bypass the big corporations.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

60. ebay is your friend..

I've been on ebay for ten years now and have bought more items than I could count.

I don't buy a damn thing new at retail, it's all used or markdown, clearance or whatever.

And I've also made a fair chunk of change selling stuff too.

That's what I call a free market.

[eleny]

41. Hubby just finished an antibiotic made in Spain

:shrug:

[monmouth]

43. Imports from Canada may be "unsafe" but China's okay???? Geez.

[onewholaughsatfools]

44. your point is invalid

of course the toys, shoes, and cars you purchase you purchase in america and of course they are made elsewhere, guess what so are the drugs that you purchase, but of course all are owned by american companies..........

[NewJeffCT]

45. In 2006, Pfizer's net profit was over $19 billion - more than

the top 10 health insurance companies combined - yes, that includes United Health, Wellpoint/Blue Cross, Aetna, CIGNA, etc, etc.

Johnson & Johnson made about $16 billion, which is slightly less than those 10 health companies.

[onewholaughsatfools]

46. jeff,

how is everything in groton and new london area......

[NewJeffCT]

47. I don't know

why do you ask?

[ramapo]

49. So obvious

A wonderfully strong and simple argument