This is unfair: biotech/pharma companies do valuable work, particularly in translational medicine.

Don't forget tobacco companies lying about cancer and oil and gas companies hiding climate change research.

Sure, but that is an issue of ethics and regulation. Fraud is illegal and should be punished proportionally to it's effects.

Capital doesn't seek the best opportunity, it can only seek the best monetary opportunity and that can involve fraud or products that are bad for society.

Without market-independent research you often wouldn't even realize that is what's going on.

> Fraud is illegal and should be punished proportionally to it's effects.

That's adorable.

Who got punished for the J&J asbestos issue? Who got punished for cigarettes and their deceptive advertising? And how badly did the Sacklers get slapped for causing the opioid epidemic?

If you're making the argument that they should be punished proportionally to their effects then all of these cases should result in the individuals being jailed for life at bare minimum and their assets forfeited. Yet this hasn't happened. Why?

I can't answer why, but I would suggest it has very little to do with the government spending on research, or in the way it allocates it annually vs 4 year blocks.

I have noted in the past that I do enjoy how intense the FTC and other consumer protection style agencies get when Democrats run the whitehouse, ideally companies would behave because if they dont the institution that has a monopoly on violence will club em really good, so to speak. IMO Citizens united and the way we fund the political game has broken the incentives to being a company on good merit rather than on legalized corruption.

Yet you ignore that when the Republicans are in power (they are very well supported by capitalist interests) they try to slash all the regulations - because money only cares about money and wants more money. And the money LOVES corruption because it gets you more money.

Capitalism without regulation is gangsterism. With regulation it's barely-controlled gangsterism.

I would particularly agree with you when it comes to money's influence in the political process. Definitely need limitations on spending, or something like Andrew Yang's idea (i heard it from him) -- give every American $N to give to their political candidate of choice, it would wash out the EROI of non democratically backed interest groups