The Invisible Enemies of Common People

No, it’s not the Illuminati, but there are giant forces that pretty much run how life goes on, as far as our material needs and even entertainment goes.

But let’s get back to the election and analyze some of the thinking of voters. They seem to see these invisible powers controlling their lives, but their reaction varies. If you voted for Trump, you probably won’t read this blog. I know you use the Internet, but I see that you prefer sites where you can trash the government or discuss moral issues at length. Or fun places. The Internet is big. I use this blog as a signature, but only in liberal forums. On those, my ideas might be of use in facing a Trump voter friend or family member.

What I will describe is a general phenomenon, where you start believing the view of the world from people you meet in person and interact with. On any issue, there is an invisible enemy out there which some people believe is a conspiracy. You see its effects, but you do not see who is pulling the strings. People make quick conclusions about these things even after one discussion with one person.

Big Pharma. Big Government. These have very visible effects, but they are nevertheless above our reach to understand or control. We never meet them face to face and we do not influence them in any way, except pharma as consumers. There are consumer protection agencies, but they are often used only after the damage is done.

Let’s include the healthcare providers. You go to the doctor and he gives you some pills. You met the doctor and he billed you 120 dollars for the visit and the writing of the Rx and sending it to the pharmacy. The pills may cost you 20-100 dollars. You feel Big Pharma is ripping you off, but the doctor is only billing a fair amount as he must file claim forms and employ a staff for this.  He is on your side, so you do not mind paying him more. You even feel some sympathy for him working the terrible healthcare system. Insurance is there for only one thing: to deny your claim and deny the doctor his fair share.

Big pharma is invisible. Sometimes CEO’s are in the news for their bonuses of tens of millions a year. Johnson & Johnson employs 126 000 people, Glaxo and Pfizer both employ about 100 000. What do they all do? You conclude that some of them must be there to fight regulations and file papers to Big Government! In fact, they do invent most of the drugs they sell, and they pay for the hospital studies carried out by an army of healthcare workers. But that is another story. Maybe another column.

What you see is only the actual bill for the drugs. With Humira it adds up to over $4000 a year for arthritis and other ailments. You can look up the current maker or distributor, which is Abbot in this case. Sometimes it is a foreign company, sometimes a giant that sells product in the USA and in Europe for most of its profit. They work the system in each country, but of course do not sell at a loss. There is a manufacture cost, as well as all the cost of development. Drugs make money during some of the patent period, often less than the patent life. The testing and development takes years.

But you do not know the details of any of this for any drug, the maker remains faceless, hiding behind seemingly friendly TV ads. You are just watching the show and see the ad. “Look, she can ride a bike on Humira. I wish I could do that. More ibuprofen for me.”

But you are curious and look up Humira in Wikipedia. It is something called Adamilumab. That is the generic name, under which it is sold by generic drug makers eventually. The side bar says it is a monoclonal antibody. What is that? Well, it is a biological drug, so its manufacture involves living cells or something like that, rather than large tanks and chemical processes that are used to make traditional drugs such as ibuprofen. Like vaccines, it’s manufacture is still tightly controlled, and the maker must prove that it is the same product from lot to lot. It can be characterized as a molecule,
C₆₄₂₈H₉₉₁₂N₁₆₉₄O₁₉₈₇S_46.   Proteins that are natural in the body also have large weights and big formulas like that. For most people all that is fuzzy concept. The only clear thing is that you must take this drug as an injection. You deal with your doctor and trust that he or she has read the scientific papers that list its benefits and risks. He should be able to explain some of those. He or she may have personal experience with other patients and will have some feel for how it will affect you. You leave it at that. He is on your side! You pay the 4000 to big Pharma or premiums to your insurance. In any year, Big Pharma and even insurance makes a profit This comes out of the pocket of other people insured under the same insurance company or Obamacare subsidies. Or your employer, who may choose to be so called “self-insured”.

Government and big business are a similar pair, but you are a bit more on your own there, as a consumer. There is no doctor to act as your helper. Possibly lawyer can help if these two get too much to handle.

The evils of government are very plain to see in that news covers most of the bigger things they do. You are left merely to fill out forms and pay tax. Businesses on the other hand just put out products and services. You get to choose, but most times it is just between the similar products of two giants. Or you can choose not to buy. Is it that simple?

It is not. Those businesses actually control that Big Government using their army of lobbyists at the federal and state level. The lobbyists even write many of the laws involving their particular industry. Some areas control your choices completely. Internet, cable TV, cell phones. These businesses have a small number of players, which are the survivors after numerous mergers. They control the product and through lobbyists also the FCC. The agency involved in communications.

Agriculture and the food industry are similarly controlled by a small number of players. They even tell the farmer what seeds and crops to plant through contacts and pricing. Bigger farms run the prices of the crops down. Family farms sell out and are merged into corporate farms.

Wealth is collecting in a small number of individuals. The recent concept of the 1% is very much real. The rest of us are just workers. The state in communism and the 1% of capitalism are starting to look quite similar. (I'm not saying they are the same. Clearly they are not. Just the material aspects of life look similar.)

We essentially have two functioning parties. The GOP is controlled by business interests. They want to make a profit, whether it is Big Pharma or the coal and oil industry. These businesses are not persons, so they do not care about morals. That leaves senators and congresspersons to preach those issues to voters in hopes of connecting probusiness with various social issues.

The Democratic party also has business lobbyists, but from somewhat different industries as well as various nonprofit groups focused on a cause (the environment, a rare disease etc.). Wall Street has agencies, banks have oversight, there are consumer protection groups and so on. Trump is undoing a number of these things now.

It’s complicated. Who knew politics could be so complicated? The illusion that the Trump campaign gave is that they will take down big government and give you more freedom. This is not happening as the lobbying groups never go away. They are even more strongly present in the GOP controlled era.

 Big Business will get away with most things in the Trump era. On top of that, Trump has succeeded in convincing those who voted for him that there is someone outside, a vague “foreigners” that is responsible for all the ills of modern America. This may work in the short run, but major changes in energy, industry, even transportation and food sources are needed to feed a growing population. Trump is investing in outdated technology. The industries that lobbied so hard for Trump will go out of business as new technology replaces them. Their large structures will become worthless.