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Congress' response to all this? They would like SNAP and Social Security recipients to go find a job. We already pay dearly for energy, medicine, banking, and telecommunications services. But a little research reveals that we're paying more -- much more -- in a variety of ways that our business-friendly mainstream media won't talk about.
1. Drug Companies: The Body SnatchersA report by
Battelle Memorial Institute determined that the $4 billion government-funded
Human Genome Project (HGP) will generate economic activity of about $140 for every dollar spent. Although that estimate is
controversial, drug industry executives
say it's just a matter of time before the profits roll in.
Big business is quickly making its move. Celera Genomics was first, as the company initiated a private version of the genome project,
incorporating the public data into their work, but forbidding the public effort to use Celera data. Abbott Labs is developing
products based on the HGP.
Merck's automated biotechnology facility was made possible by the HGP. Two-thirds of the products at
Bristol-Myers Squibb have been impacted by the HGP.
Pfizer is starting to make big profits from its genome-based cancer treatments.
But the industry is going beyond profits, to the actual privatization of our bodies. One-fifth of the
human genome is privately owned through patents. Strains of influenza and hepatitis have been
claimed by corporate and university labs, preventing researchers from using the patented life forms to perform cancer research.
As if to mock us while taking over our public research, some of the largest drug companies haven't been paying much in taxes.
Pfizer had 40% of its 2011-12 revenues in the U.S., but declared almost $7 billion in U.S.
losses to go along with $31 billion in foreign profits.
Abbott Labs had 42% of its sales in the U.S., but declared a
loss in the U.S. along with $12 billion in foreign profits.
Comment: How common is it for houses to completely explode in the U.S.? Let's look back at a few this past year...
"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013
Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013
Corpus Christi, Texas house explosion injures 3 - 'damaging homes as far as three blocks away', 12 July 2013
More exploding houses? Westminster, Colorado house explosion linked to natural gas, 14 Jun 2013
Explosion levels house in Texas, 13 Jan 2013
Two killed, homes destroyed in huge Indianapolis explosion, 11 Nov 2012
Connecticut house explosion kills one, injures two, 30 Aug 2012