What difference does the motive of individual participants make? There's a system in place which incentivises people to sue to stop this kind of abuse and punish the companies doing it. I'd much rather that's done for money than waiting and hoping for a good Samaritan to come along and save people out of the goodness of his heart.
@sbarre what makes you think that the payouts will not punish the offenders? are the pharma, not one of the categories of offenders in this case? Just curious.
I mean real meaningful punishment (for the companies and the individuals responsible for the decisions), not just a settlement payout that represents a fraction of the profits they actually made by causing this tragedy, or "the cost of doing business" as you often hear in these situations..
Citizens United has nothing to do with why we rarely charge people who break the law while working for a corporation with charges that carry significant jail time.
> Isn't pharma losing some of their ill gotten profits better than them losing one?
The problem here is that when such a thing occurs again and again, people start to treat it as a business model. Punishments are meant to deter, by giving only a slap on the wrist and calling it sufficient punishment, they'll be further legitimizing the whole strategy as a viable business model.
Instead, I found a new perspective that helped me to see that this isn't about opiate abuse at all. It's about cashing checks.