How can we as a society expect government officials to rule in favor of protecting the general public when they are allowed to accept donations and support from big businesses?
-@dilucadomain
In my opinion, I do not think it is currently possible to expect that government officials will always protect individual rights whenever they are being bought by coorporations. The people that fund their campains expect a return on their investment, which is only natural, and the federal government gives them the power to do this. My prefered solution would be to reduce the power of the government so that lobbying politicians would essentially be a waste of time and money.
Another possible solution to the issues however, would be making it illegal for special-interest groups to send donations to politicians in exchange for policy that specifially benefits them. One example is the price of insulin in the United States. In 2018 the US price of inulin was $98.70/unit but was only $12.00/unit in Canada(McGrail). While many point to the greedy nature of big pharma, the root problem lies with FDA import regulations, that benefit and were presumably pushed through by US pharmacutical companies. In most cases, it is illegal for US citizens to import insulin from Canada, even though it is drastically cheaper(Canadian Insulin). This allows US insulin providers to charge over 8 times the world price of insulin. Removing these import barriers that strictly benefit big pharma woulds force US insulin providers to compete with the world price and would make insulin drastically cheaper which would drastically benefit american consumers.
Works Cited
Canadian Insulin. "What You NEED to Know Before Buying Insulin from Canada." Buy Canadian Insulin, 14 Aug. 2021, buycanadianinsulin.com/buying-insulin-from-canada/.
McGrail, Samantha. "Insulin Prices 8x Higher in the US Compared to Similar Nations." PharmaNewsIntelligence, 9 Oct. 2020, pharmanewsintel.com/news/insulin-prices-8x-higher-in-the-us-compared-to-similar-nations.