In a moral sense, as far as I’m concerned. Especially after reading this TCS article and the paper it mentions.
It turns out that Evil Pharma Companies are not the ones at fault when it comes to lack of access to essential drugs in the poor parts of the world. As is often the case, their tin-horn leaders are slowly killing the population through bad policy.
Much of Africa, India, and other poor nations have tariffs on essential medicines. Only 50,000 Indians are getting HIV treatment, out of literally millions infected, as a result of India’s 61% effective tax rate on drugs. Africa’s rates are lower, but still onerous.
How can anybody who claims to care about the third-world not be incensed by this? What on Earth are the anti-globos thinking? It’s precisely their protectionist, anti-trade policy that’s killing the very people they claim to want to help. My hypothesis is that the anti-globo movement has never really been about making the lives of the poor better, it’s about hating the progress caused by modern, Western capitalism.
