From my perspective, as long as medicine is a for profit business, and not held as a high social value that is geared to attract people motivated by the act of service toward the strength and well being of the population it will have a parasitic and predatory edge to it. This edge will, like cancer skew both research and practices to incline toward generating income over wellness, eroding the strength of the people it is supposed to strengthen. In other words, we author our own poverty due to a self inflicted cultural values problem which leads to destructive symptoms, including institutional structures that feed on, rather than nourish the strength that comes from having each other’s backs rather than being on each other’s backs. The pill dependent marketing driven culture, as well as the high priced profiteers of the industry are symptoms of that failure to recognize where our bread is really buttered.
Bonus irony points: The article about this is in “Vanity Fair” http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/09/health-care200909
The Wisdom Of Life 