"On Corruption" – Numerous Comments

I appreciate all the comments to my recent article “On Corruption.” If my schedule permitted me time to respond to them all, I certainly would.  

For some perverse reason, I am more apt to pry loose a few mintues to reply to comments that put me on the defensive – especially astute ones, like this one from Andrew, who asks some very good questions, including:

“You seem to be against a profit motive in health care. If so, you are on the wrong side of history. Whenever the profit motive is removed, innovation is also greatly diminished (if not eliminated). Do we want that in our health care?”

And …

“Would you argue that the profit motive should also be removed from your own industry?”

Whenever I wax philosophic, I know I’m doing so at the risk of alienating large groups of people. And insofar as I’m primarily a businessman and not a philosopher, I should probably keep my utopian ideas to myself. But as long as it’s come up, I may as well say that, in an ideal world, I think that certain human pursuits should be not a part of our for-profit world.  I would start with criminal justice — but right behind that I would put healthcare. I believe professionals in this arena should be well very paid, but I think it’s clear that a profit motive works directly against the health and wellbeing of everyone in our society – except, of course, shareholders.

Again, I hesitate to mix political philosophy with business, but if you want to know more about my ideas here – including how I believe that the pharmaceutical industry should be reined in against its attempt to completely rape our people, please see this essay.

Thanks again for the honest communication, Andrew. And please keep up the counter-argument. It’s only by questioning our beliefs that we grow.