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While that isn’t going away, chief executives of large pharmaceutical companies are broadening their horizons. Why spend $10 billion acquiring a U.S. biotech with a mid-stage drug when a similar molecule can be licensed from China for a fraction of the price?
So these fuckers are going to run the research sector through the same outsourcing treatment they ran manufacturing won’t they.
I’m wondering what would happen if PRC doesn’t profit maximize their product in the long run. As standard of living increases the cost of labor in China would get close to the cost of labor in the West. If the difference in cost of labor isn’t a significant factor and Chinese product (manufacturing and IP like drugs) is sold close to the cost of labor and materials, wouldn’t that force the Western firms to operate as non-profits? If they can’t make significant profit on anything, won’t that significantly disrupt the current capitalist model?
The cost of living will always be lower in China compared to the West due to their organizing of society. Therefore, it will always cost less to use Chinese labor than to use Western labor (except prison slaves and migrant workers) because the US cannot reduce the cost of living effectively due to their underinvestment in infrastructure and their commitment to allowing profit to build sprawl that cannot be operated efficiently.
The west will just continue becoming more insular and cut trade off with the rest of the world so that the oligarchs can exploit western population. We already see this happening with cheaper and better Chinese alternatives either being banned or having huge tariffs placed on them.
In the short run, yes. However in the long run, their profits have to shrink. They’ll try recovering that from labor. If labor responds with organizing, the oligarchs would see their profits shrink further. Further, the West won’t close up wholesale. Some parts would, others wouldn’t. If people in the insular parts see people having it better across the border, they might vote to have that too. Assuming such a change could happen somewhat democratically. I don’t think the West would be able to insulate long term. But that’s a bet based on a lot of assumptions that could turn out wrong.
That’s all true, but capitalism encourages short term thinking, so they’ll do whatever they see as necessary to secure quarterly profits. In the long run that will lead to the problems you describe and further erode faith in the system as a whole.
