"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

vioxx
August 19, 2005 - 5:47 pm

a symbol of all that is wrong in this culture.

a drug rushed to market.. or at least the dangers not fully disclosed. a person dead (though to my understanding the drug didn't kill him, but he was on it... this confuses me) and massive lawsuit with the verdit of 250 million.

let's just focus on the verdict since the rest is either really easy to understand or too fuzzy for me to care about.

250 million dollars.

where does a company get 250 million in cash? not many have that much laying around. some do. merck might.. but still.

merck will want that 250 million back.. it has other lawsuits to face. you see, the 250 million doesn't go to everyone.. just one to one case.

think about that.

who ultimately pays this verdict? the company? not really. but even if it is the company.. who gets hurt by it?

just like the school think i think i talked about a bit go.. everyone who pays medical bills will be footing this bill -- either through paying more money to various drug companies OR by drug companies not introducing new drugs.. perhaps even cutting back on research.

i don't get why the family gets the money. does 250 million fix a dead person? why does that family deserve to get rich? i think the money should go to some sort of charity. let it buy food for starving people in africa.

the point of the lawsuit should be to hurt the company and remedy the problem. you can't fix a dead person. so make the company pay.. and make that money do some good. i doubt the family will spend it well. but i'm a cynical person.

250 million is too fucking much. it's shock value. i hope.

we fixate on money.

money is a one or zero in a bank computer system. nothing more, nothing less.