News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:An anarchist takes on Big Pharma by teaching patients to ... by alasdair_ on Friday October 13, 2017 @04:53PM (#15469161)
>the natural disaster is free market capitalism

Government-protected monopolies (i.e. drug patents) are almost the antithesis of free-market capitalism.

Re:An anarchist takes on Big Pharma by teaching patients to ... by wfo on Friday October 13, 2017 @07:41PM (#15469899)
No they are the very definition of free-market capitalism. They are property, and property rights are the entire basis of capitalism. In particular, private ownership over the means of production (which is the definition of capitalism) requires the government grant monopolies to these owners.

Every property right is a government-protected monopoly; without these government monopolies what you have is an end to private property which may be desirable but is certainly not free-market capitalism, it is communism.