Q&A of the Day – COVID-19 vaccines demonstrate the world benefiting from American capitalism
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
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Today’s entry: I’ve heard you rail against socialized medicine and tout the benefits of capitalism. What do you have to say about the fact that the country with socialized medicine was the first to distribute to its people the vaccine. Also, what do you say about the fact that capitalism has allowed companies to sell out their stocks of the vaccine to other countries before the United States gets it.
Bottom Line: First, I’ll share with you the exact response I shared with this listener. I reject the premise of your question because the vaccine's approval has nothing whatsoever to do with economic systems. England's regulators approved the vaccine before the FDA did. Period. The FDA reviewed for final approval on Thursday. Nice try. Moreover, to the extent economic systems factor into this topic. Ask yourself why the lead vaccine candidates are all advanced by American companies. If the premise of anything is false anything built on it is too. In this case your entire argument. If you come across any like absurd arguments – you're more than welcome to borrow this from me. Beyond supplying a shutdown argument for those touting the benefits of socialism over American capitalism during the pandemic, this topic is instructive. The reason Operation Warp Speed was so successful was due to the ability for leading American companies to rapidly allocate resources to a cause free from government bureaucracy implicit within governments with socialized medicine. Moreover, it’s the profits derived by American drug companies most notably Pfizer and Moderna, that literally are aiding in the saving of lives in England and beyond right now during the pandemic.
While drug companies are frequent and seemingly easy targets of those who are economically ignorant, what’s not widely reported is how and why capitalism is specifically responsible for life saving drugs, vaccines and related technologies...or why we should all root for ever larger profits for these companies. Here’s the rest of the story...
- #1 – The industry ranking of R&D spending by American pharmaceutical companies
- #1 – The industry ranking based on the percentage of revenue and profits reinvested by American 9harmaceutical companies
- 90% - the percentage of clinical trials that fail
To summarize, no industry deploys more capital or a higher percentage of revenue and profits to develop new products than the American pharmaceutical industry. And the high level of development is critical because only 10% of projects result in a successful end result. In other words, the 90% failure rate is static. More profits, equal more opportunities for future success. Lower profits equal fewer opportunities for future success. It’s not a coincidence that with every government and every capable pharmaceutical in the world attempting to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The first two to successfully do it were American companies, Pfizer and Moderna. How remarkable is that in context? 172 countries and over two thousand labs around the world were working on this at the same time. The United States only accounts for 4% of the world’s population, and yet the first two companies to cross the finish line with lifesaving vaccines during a worldwide pandemic are American companies. That’s supposed to be a coincidence? Just as it was a coincidence that the United States went from a ragtag group of colonies to the world’s leading superpower in under 150 years. I mean, that just happens too by coincidence too, right?
American capitalism has created more prosperity, more freedom, saved more lives and improved more lives in 244 years than every other country and every other economic system in human history combined. If you don’t like it, leave this country and even then, you’ll still benefit.
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