Saturday, December 26, 2009
A Defense Contract for Big Pharma
A recent report by the State Department said that the current counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan could not work in its current implementation. A number of fundamental goals have not been established as a framework, and the program also lacks officials who are on the ground and can enforce the provisions locally in Afghanistan. Given the limited success of American strategies with regard to the Drug War in countries such as Columbia and Mexico, I believe that nothing less than an intelligent, simple, and unique production-side solution will work.
Of course, I will have to revisit this theory in the near future to provide much needed details, but for now I will propose the general idea. A country's "Comparative Advantage" is a central idea in Macroeconomics; one could argue that in the 19th century America had a comparative advantage in manufacturing, a number of tropical climate countries have one in growing coffee, and many others have a comparative advantage in technology today. Given the large amounts of Afghan Opium that is processed into Heroin, and sent a large number of countries the world over (such as Russia, Greece, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and Western Europe), and despite laws making this extremely illegal, Afghan Farmers continue to thrive. They have a comparative advantage in the farming of opium.
The previous American Administration had made attempts to get farmers in Afghanistan to switch to alternative crops. This policy did not work, and even for those farmers who are not interested in producing opium, are often cajoled into growing it with little compensation. As an educated guess, I believe it is safe to assume the majority of funds raised by the Taliban come from processing the Opium into Heroin, and then trafficking it abroad. But, even if the world was free from the scourge of Heroin, Opium is necessary for the production of legal pharmaceuticals. I do not know where big pharmaceutical companies get their supplies, but I believe that we can assume that simple subsidies could be given to them in order to create new buyers for Afghan farmers' opium.
My solution proposes just that: have Big Pharma buy all the opium that would otherwise go to illicit street drugs, and use (if not all) some to create legitimate, regulated pharmaceuticals. This would be beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, the Taliban would no longer have the supplies necessary to carry on in the drug trade. Secondly, assuming all afghan opium is simply destroyed and not used, the cost of buying it all would be substantially less than the cost of traditional counter-narcotics operations by the Military, Police, and organizations such as the DEA. Lastly, these latter organizations could provide the security that would be necessary to get large pharmaceutical companies into such a hostile environment.
If the success of our military operations depend on winning this Afghan Counter-Narcotics effort, America must think outside the box. For a country built on innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, then we should harness that spirit, utilize market forces, and deal a serious blow to the finances of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Of course, I will have to revisit this theory in the near future to provide much needed details, but for now I will propose the general idea. A country's "Comparative Advantage" is a central idea in Macroeconomics; one could argue that in the 19th century America had a comparative advantage in manufacturing, a number of tropical climate countries have one in growing coffee, and many others have a comparative advantage in technology today. Given the large amounts of Afghan Opium that is processed into Heroin, and sent a large number of countries the world over (such as Russia, Greece, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and Western Europe), and despite laws making this extremely illegal, Afghan Farmers continue to thrive. They have a comparative advantage in the farming of opium.
The previous American Administration had made attempts to get farmers in Afghanistan to switch to alternative crops. This policy did not work, and even for those farmers who are not interested in producing opium, are often cajoled into growing it with little compensation. As an educated guess, I believe it is safe to assume the majority of funds raised by the Taliban come from processing the Opium into Heroin, and then trafficking it abroad. But, even if the world was free from the scourge of Heroin, Opium is necessary for the production of legal pharmaceuticals. I do not know where big pharmaceutical companies get their supplies, but I believe that we can assume that simple subsidies could be given to them in order to create new buyers for Afghan farmers' opium.
My solution proposes just that: have Big Pharma buy all the opium that would otherwise go to illicit street drugs, and use (if not all) some to create legitimate, regulated pharmaceuticals. This would be beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, the Taliban would no longer have the supplies necessary to carry on in the drug trade. Secondly, assuming all afghan opium is simply destroyed and not used, the cost of buying it all would be substantially less than the cost of traditional counter-narcotics operations by the Military, Police, and organizations such as the DEA. Lastly, these latter organizations could provide the security that would be necessary to get large pharmaceutical companies into such a hostile environment.
If the success of our military operations depend on winning this Afghan Counter-Narcotics effort, America must think outside the box. For a country built on innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, then we should harness that spirit, utilize market forces, and deal a serious blow to the finances of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Oh god not counterfeit handbags!
In Beijing thousands of vendors from street markets are shouting at Trademark lawyers, "Petty bourgeois bastard." When will companies realize complete exclusion of others from markets means that millions go hungry. "Oh, we're losing profits," they say. Yet if anyone purchasing those handbags could afford the real thing they wouldn't be buying knock offs. What about the positive externalities created by forgeries supporting the poor? what ignorance pervades the world.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Anne Coulter: Fuel for the Fire
I just participated in my first book burning... I know, I know. Book burning is bad; too many memories of Hitler dredged up by those types of actions, generally speaking. But no, this is different. It's cold, we don't wanna use anything useful for kindling, so we look around and a friend says to me, "I'm gonna make fun of you every time I come over for having Anne Coulter on your bookshelf." The funny thing is in 2004 I bought a whole bunch of books from the whole political spectrum, so I gave her a chance. Not only is she a royal bitch, but everything she says has only one purpose: to perpetuate the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of like-minded folks who have no other purpose in life but to perpetuate the very greed and stupidity that has resulted in the horrible situation in which our great country now finds itself. Thanks for helping me catch my logs on fire Anne. If I had known you were this useful I would have done this a long time ago. Burn baby, burn; yeah, that's it. Burn.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
With Renewed Vigor
My past attempts to create a blog have failed almost completely. While I've managed to keep some semblance of a daily journal, there are many topics that I've failed to write about. I need a place to rant and rave, say things I might not necessarily mean, and generally take the Freedom of Speech as far as I can by saying things that should be said, but generally are not.
At the moment I am in my last semester of a 6.5 year college career; things are hectic, classes are hectic, I'm getting married, I'm doing my best to organize a Student Rights Week, etc. Yet I still need to find time to say things such as:
At the moment I am in my last semester of a 6.5 year college career; things are hectic, classes are hectic, I'm getting married, I'm doing my best to organize a Student Rights Week, etc. Yet I still need to find time to say things such as:
- Michael Phelps is my hero; the man won 12 gold medals in the Olympics and still gets high. The only reason people are mad at him is weed is illegal, and the government has spent ridiculous amounts of money on b.s. advertising, a.k.a Office of National Drug Control Policy's "Above the Influence" ads in Comic Books. For instance, one ad says in big letters, "BECOME A TV REMOTE CONTROL OPERATOR!" and then, "Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren't many jobs out there for potheads." Oh?Really? Could someone be full a' shit? Let's focus on something actually important people. Also, when I'm reading comic books do they really think I'll heed any such recomendations?
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