> It's not $11,000 for a plastic valve. It's $11,000 for a plastic valve and the many thousands of hours of R&D, testing, validation, certification and risk.
Nope. Sorry. Not buying that argument this time. I accept that argument for patent exclusion periods and high prices on medication, because the R&D has enormous risk costs when medications don't work or don't get approval. Allowing pharmaceutical companies to recoup those costs is vital to innovation and public health. This is a piece of plastic that's part of a larger machine. There was no enormous R&D budget required to develop the replaceable component. By all means let them make money on the machine, but the argument doesn't hold up for this simple maintenance component.
Nope. Sorry. Not buying that argument this time. I accept that argument for patent exclusion periods and high prices on medication, because the R&D has enormous risk costs when medications don't work or don't get approval. Allowing pharmaceutical companies to recoup those costs is vital to innovation and public health. This is a piece of plastic that's part of a larger machine. There was no enormous R&D budget required to develop the replaceable component. By all means let them make money on the machine, but the argument doesn't hold up for this simple maintenance component.