Courageous,imaginative, bold and practical move. Technological reasons apart,the political returns on assuming charge of other countries’ defense is minimal.Tell me, which country has not been attacked because it has US defense system or US personnel.Protagonists of interfering in the affairs of a foreign country might argue that it is acting as a deterrent.Logic is flawed.When a country is not threatened.you assume it is because of US protection.What about North Korea vs South Korea and Japan?If a country decides to attack another country or wants to defend itself it will do so with or with out US support.What happened when Nixon sent US Enterprise into Indian ocean in 1971 during Indo-Pak.conflict?India went ahead and Bangladesh was born.What about Vietnam,Korea? US wasted lives and money.To what end?Double guessing game costs.Obama seems to think straight and his move is welcome as it will cool down tempers of jittery neighbors of the countries to which US has stopped offering military installations.Money saved could be used for social causes in US.These types of initiatives shall endear US to the world which sees US as an interfering bully right now.
Tag: US
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Israel’s Refusal to a freeze on West Bank.
Israel has won again.US seems to be run by Israel by proxy.Unless the freeze is effected, there is no sense of justice to Palestinians.At this rate Israel, may, over a period of time, have settlements all over Palestine and US will be a mute spectator.Why this pretense of negotiating?
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Health care-cost of Medicine.
As I see it the major cost factor is the cost of medicines.Pharma
companies must be asked to donate at least 1% of their turn over to
healthcare programme
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55847/
———————————————–
Cost of Medicine in Health Care
by Venkata Ramanan[Comment posted 2009-08-07 05:36:23]
Referring to Bob’s statement on cost of medicine in health care, I
furnish statistics here below.
“Of each dollar spent on health care in the United States 31% goes to
hospital care, 21% goes to physician services, 10% to pharmaceuticals,
8% to nursing homes, 7% to administrative costs, and 23% to all other
categories (diagnostic laboratory services, pharmacies, medical device
manufacturers, etc.[7] Reports on the percentage of costs that go to
profits varies from 25-30%.”
(Linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#Health_care_spending)GDP of USA is:GDP (purchasing power parity): $14.29 trillion (2008
est.) $14.11 trillion (2007) $13.83 trillion (2006)
GDP (official exchange rate): $14.33 trillion (2008 est.)(
source;http://flagcounter.com/factbook/us)One can see where the Dollar goes.Why do not the Hospitals,Physicians
,labs and the Pharma industry contribute?
other than pharma Industries,others could charge less or do pro bono
service.pharma, I still can contribute 1% of their Turn over.
Let’s see what Pharma companies make in terms of US $
The following is a list of the 20 largest pharmaceutical and biotech
companies ranked by healthcare revenue. Some companies (eg, Bayer,
Johnson and Johnson and Procter & Gamble) have additional revenue not
included here. The phrase Big Pharma is often used to refer to
companies with revenue in excess of $3 billion, and/or R&D expenditure
in excess of $500 million.
Revenue Rank 2008 Company Country Total Revenues (USD millions)
Healthcare R&D 2006 (USD millions) Net income/ (loss) 2006 (USD
millions) Employees 2006
1 Novartis Switzerland 53,324 7,125 11,053 138,000
2 Pfizer USA 48,371 7,599 19,337 122,200
3 Bayer Germany 44,200 1,791 6,450 106,200
4 GlaxoSmithKline United Kingdom 42,813 6,373 10,135 106,000
5 Johnson and Johnson USA 37,020 5,349 7,202 102,695
6 Sanofi-Aventis France 35,645 5,565 5,033 100,735
7 Hoffmann?La Roche Switzerland 33,547 5,258 7,318 100,289
8 AstraZeneca UK/Sweden 26,475 3,902 6,063 50,000+
9 Merck & Co. USA 22,636 4,783 4,434 74,372
10 Abbott Laboratories USA 22,476 2,255 1,717 66,800
11 Wyeth USA 20,351 3,109 4,197 66,663
12 Bristol-Myers Squibb USA 17,914 3,067 1,585 60,000
13 Eli Lilly and Company USA 15,691 3,129 2,663 50,060
14 Amgen USA 14,268 3,366 2,950 48,000
15 Boehringer Ingelheim Germany 13,284 1,977 2,163 43,000
16 Schering-Plough USA 10,594 2,188 1,057 41,500
17 Baxter International USA 10,378 614 1,397 38,428
18 Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Japan 10,284 1,620 2,870 15,000
19 Genentech USA 9,284 1,773 2,113 33,500
20 Procter & Gamble USA 8,964 n/a 10,340 29,258
Source: Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies Charts & Lists, Med Ad News,
September 2007[21]
[edit]Market leaders in terms of sales
The top 15 pharmaceutical companies by 2008 sales are:[22]
[23]
Rank Company Sales ($m) Based/Headquartered in
1 Pfizer 43,363 US
2 GlaxoSmithKline 36,506 UK
3 Novartis 36,506 Switzerland
4 Sanofi-Aventis 35,642 France
5 AstraZeneca 32,516 UK/Sweden
6 Hoffmann?La Roche 30,336 Switzerland
7 Johnson & Johnson 29,425 US
8 Merck & Co. 26,191 US
9 Abbott 19,466 US
10 Eli Lilly and Company 19,140 US
11 Amgen 15,794 US
12 Wyeth 15,682 US
13 Teva 15,274 Israel
14 Bayer 15,660 Germany
15 Takeda 13,819 Japan
( source;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry)
I think pharma companies can contribute.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55847/)comment:
Health Care Budget
by Venkata Ramanan[Comment posted 2009-08-07 05:45:55]
I forgot to include Medicare budget in my comment.
‘national health spending totaling around $2.5 trillion in 2009, and
projected to grow to $4.4 trillion by
2018’,(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158463.php))
.14 trillion US $ is not a small amount in a budget of% 2.5 trillions. -
Iran-G20 Show over,move over to real Politicking.
‘Considering’ and ‘Securing’ assurances from China and Russia on taking action against Iran may sound grandiose, but will it really fructify?The ‘inevitability’ of sanctions-as made out by Russia-may drive Iran into a corner.Amidst this bonhomie people seem to have forgotten N.Korea and Pakistan on Nuclear issue.The promises made by China and Russia that they will take tougher action-it is not something new,as Security Council members, they ought to do it anyway-holds good so long as it affects them, especially with reference to China.
Well, the Talk Shop is over,all of you made statesemanesque like statements, now go back to real Politicking.
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Afghanisthan.
What is the purpose of engagement?To win a war, for territory or for economic gains or for defending one’s country.In the case of Afghanistan,you are trying to defend your country from terrorists who have no borders and they are mingled with the local population.Do we hope to identify them and wipe them out in their country?.Impossible.The country where they are from can do it much better.You shall be losing men for a non winnable war. Again this non sense of statistical classification of the suffering of soldiers-dead,injured, seriously injured and further finer classification.This is not an academic exercise;people are dying and are injured,Quit Afghanistan as no occupying force has been able to achieve that in the history of Afghanistan..Beef up UK’s internal security , pressure Afghans to act and supply them hardware.That’s it. Period.
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