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A comment on What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing Printers. Parent comment

Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by jackhack on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @01:42PM (#12591436)
Because, from healthcare, to consumer products, to software, to books, the US is paying full price to subsidize the cost to much of the world. The US is the profit center that makes possible the steeply-discounted-almost-free sales elsewhere.
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Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by cmdrfred on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @01:53PM (#12591515)
The "full price" here was 15 percent of GlaxoSmithKline's revenue last year. They spent 40 percent on marketing. When can this myth die?

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2016/07/19/where-gs...

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Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by vonmoltke on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @02:03PM (#12591591)
Probably about the same time as people stop equating "general and administration expenses" with "marketing". Marketing is a subset of that.
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Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by cmdrfred on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @02:10PM (#12591642)
Yes, it also includes buying lunches for doctors and private jets for the executive staff. What it does not include is R&D in any shape or form. The fact is R&D isn't making drug prices high.
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Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by vonmoltke on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @02:26PM (#12591771)
Oy. It also includes paying the janitors, the property taxes, and the myriad of other costs that come with running a company.

> The fact is R&D isn't making drug prices high.

Neither are their SGA expenses. The two combined are just under half GSK's revenue.

Anyway, that's irrelevant to trying to score cheap points with a false equivalence.

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Re:What HP Must Do to Make Amends for Its Self-Destructing P... by kbart on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @01:58AM (#12595717)
"the US is paying full price to subsidize the cost to much of the world. The US is the profit center that makes possible the steeply-discounted-almost-free sales elsewhere."

Yeah, right. So why we pay ~30% more[1] for the same iPhone in Europe? I've seen this "we pay for the rest of the world" myth over and over again, but never reliable proofs or sources that support it. Sure, I bet Apple gets most profits from USA, but it's because it sells most of phones there, not that they are "given for free" elsewhere.

1. http://micgadget.com/36729/iphone-7-price-in-usa-china-europ...

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