Tom Ault
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Gradually over the past several years, our government has become consumed by big business through greed and financial intimidation. No longer are we a government of the people and by the people but rather of the corporations and by their profit.
Consider the article of Aug. 20 in our newspaper “Brand-name drug prices rising at slower pace, lower amounts.” We here constantly about interest rates, need for more wages, recession possibilities, and a host of other subjects that seemed to be designed to keep us from understanding what is actually happening.
The article stated, among other things, that the drug companies have been allowed to increase their prices as many as three times annually, and sometimes 10 percent each time. It also stated this year the larger corporations only increased their retails by 5 percent so far in 2019…question, have you had a raise of 5 percent so far this year? I haven’t!
The current inflation rate (2018-19) is now 1.95 percent. If this number holds, $1 today will be equivalent to $1.02 next year. The current inflation rate page gives more detail on the latest official inflation rates. Using that math versus the cost of drugs, consider that same $.02 is supposed to offset $.05 in drug costs alone.
I fail to comprehend why there are price controls on many things, but apparently not on drugs. If we continue to allow the large drug makers to do as they please, respecting the dollar profit and not the people they are supposed to be helping, we are rolling over to their worship of a dollar rather than good of the people they supposedly care about.
The drug creator’s work to help the ill; the drug maker’s “bean counters” work to take the ill’s money.