On Vaccine for All….and making $10,500 per hour…..

So, I’ve always been sort of a political animal….interested in political stuff from a pretty early age and even worked on a couple of political campaigns while still in high school. That said, when I started this “blog”, I promised myself that I’d keep political stuff to a minimum. I just didn’t want folks on here bickering and fighting and bitchin’ about left and right and liberal and conservative and socialist and capitalist. Because most people’s attitudes and opinions on these things is well beyond entrenched these days and borders on the fanatical.

Anyway, spotted something on the snews the other morning – mentioned it on Facebook – that really caught my attention. Saw a discussion on the TV about whether the big pharma companies should lift their patents on the COVID vaccine, so that countries in the “developing” world (read poor) could make some of the stuff, because, apparently, but not surprisingly, countries in the “developed” world (read rich) are hogging it all. So this guy from Phizer (sp.) was on the television thingy explaining that the poor countries would likely screw up vaccine production and that big pharma has invested quite a bit of money to develop these vaccines – so it would make more sense for big pharma to build bigger manufacturing facilities so they can continue to make all the vaccine. What a pile of shit that is.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the COVID vaccine should be available and it should be free to every person on the planet…..in fact, this should have been a worldwide vaccination program in the first place….there should be no richer or poorer in this whole equation. Why is an 80-year-old life more precious in a rich than in a poor country? I don’t really care where the vaccine comes from – if it’s safe, it should be headed everywhere. And big pharma could be helping the countries in the developing world produce their own vaccines. It’s the way it should be.

You know, North America – and I don’t know where else in the world – is currently hauling itself out an enormous opioid epidemic. It has cost societies in the United States and Canada billions and billions of dollars. It has been proven in court that some big pharma companies knowingly and willingly and purposefully nurtured this epidemic into being. And I know there are many, many law suits currently happening that are making big pharma pay some of what they have cost us, but, really, isn’t the COVID pandemic really the perfect opportunity for this self same big pharma to help save the planet, and, in some senses, to be our knight in shining armour…..and, for once, not try to addict us to something or soak more cash out of us.

And, of course, the other big question everybody’s asking about the pandemic – besides when it might somehow end – is how are governments going to pay for all the “stimulus” money they’ve pumped into our societies to keep them afloat while the economy spins and whirls around during what seem like endless lockdowns. And the answer to this question is remarkably simple. Governments around the world need to lay some pretty heavy taxes on their really rich folks and their really rich corporations. It is a complete and total no-brainer that there are a bunch of people on this planet who have entirely too much money. Seems there’s a bit of a race underway to see who might be the first trillionaire on Spaceship Earth – and that’s pretty grotesque for sure.

Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a relentless tax attack on middle and lower classes in Western society. Taxes on the rich and on large corporations have fallen steadily over the last 75-80 years, while increasing very steadily on everyone else. It gained considerable momentum when something called Reaganomics reared its ugly head back in the 1980’s and “trickle down economics” became a popular catch phrase. So that in today’s world, it’s okay for an American CEO to earn $10,500 per hour, while government won’t even allow the poor a minimum wage of $15 per hour. How goddamned grotesque is that?

North American societies in 2021 are totally and wildly dysfunctional. There is no fairness and you really can never use the word “equity” to describe anything about them. There was an old saying years ago….it went like this…”And the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer”…..this is an absolute truism in our world today. We could change it. It would cause a lot of societal dislocation, a lot of short term pain, and a whole lot of pissed off rich people. But it might save the planet. ‘Nough political stuff….

See you next week…..