Greed Can Be Good

Megan McArdle at The Atlantic asks why shouldn't people get huge amounts of dollars if they create innovative products or services that improve the quality of people's lives.

I agree with McArdle. My concern with the health care reform proposals is the lack of discussion and understanding of the impact on innovation and research. Perhaps there will be none or a negligible amount, but I intuitively doubt it. McArdle writes:

"The injustice of his demands for profit rankles more deeply than the miracle of his inventions can soothe. If they have to risk some innovation in order to wring this profit out of the system, and distribute the goods he's already produced for us more widely, they're fine with that tradeoff.

I'm not. And I don't think this is a gap we can bridge by discussing the thing. We're doomed to keep getting angry at each other."

I haven't found any research on this subject. If anyone knows of any let me know.

What do you think? Sphere: Related Content