Written by Carmine Gorga, The Somist Institute
It has been said that Coronavirus is changing our understanding of the world.
Let us see how much is this true.
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A long time ago, relying on much earlier work, I published an essay titled “A Declaration of Economic Interdependence.” This Declaration, reproduced in the Appendix, was published on the United Nation website set in preparation for the Rio+20 UN Conference in Rio.
In it I pointed out that, cognizant of the blessings of Political Independence, ours is the task to call for the realization of Economic Interdependence. That is indeed the reality in economics. There are innumerable advantages in thinking along the lines of economic interdependence and working within the intellectual framework of economic interdependence, rather than that of individualism or even just competition.
The Coronavirus pandemic offers us an opportunity to truly practice interdependence and explore how far this vessel brings us.
Clearly, the entire world (the entire world of science at least) is involved in the search for a vaccine. That is the only solution that will alleviate our pains. Should not the scientific world coordinate its efforts, each scientist, each scientific organization, collaborate with each and every laboratory in the world, and see who is the first to get us all through the goal post?
Clearly, property rights interests militate against truly open and complete collaboration. A patent is going to be assigned to the entity whose vaccine is certified first. Because of the prevalent support for the “winner take all” mentality, the organization that under current legal practice is going to create the vaccine first is going to “make a killing.”
“property rights interests militate against truly open and complete collaboration.”
Is not this the fundamental reason why the process of bringing a vaccine to market is so dreadfully slow? Recognizing that this legal/political/ideological approach is actually, definitely, leaving behind many human beings dead in the process, should we not experiment with a new legal/political/ideological intellectual approach?
The potential solution is this: Rather than granting an exclusive patent to the organization that reaches a viable solution first, why not share the financial benefits of the patent among all organizations that have participated in the process of creating the vaccine?
From day one, each and every organization would publish on a website each and every detail of the experiment it is working on. This information alone would eliminate the waste involved in duplication of efforts. Many organizations would immediately start working on a different approach – on an approach that might have statistically fewer chances of success, but in the end might prove more successful than a “safer” approach.
Results of each experiment would be published as soon as obtained.
As we know, there is no failure in science. Negative results are not necessarily failures. They prove that a specific experiment does not yield positive results. Each and every organization in the world that is made aware of this result will avoid spending time and energy on it – unless, of course, residual doubts of its potential value still persist.
Immediate knowledge of successes and failures would again permit each and every organization to discard Tier One hypotheses and without waiting for internal confirmation would pass on to Tier Two – and then to Tier Three and Four and Five – hypotheses.
“In the “winner-take-all approach” one is motivated to reach the goal first and alone.”
Can we imagine how much faster would we reach the goal of a successful vaccine? Can we imagine how much mental energy would be spared, energy that instead of working on hypotheses (doomed) to fail would be working on more advanced and perhaps even more adventurous experiments?
It all depends on the socially conceived and socially permitted reward system. In the “winner-take-all approach” one is motivated to reach the goal first and alone. In the world of interdependence, the goal would be to reach the goal the fastest possible way.
The key to enter the world of interdependence lies in the distribution of profits from the patent. If, instead of the “winner-take-all approach” we were to institute this, the “all winners approach,” we could distribute profits on the basis of the expenses incurred in the process of discovery of the vaccine. These expenses can be easily accounted for and verified.
Not the least benefit of the application of the principles of interdependence to Big Pharma is an expected considerable reduction in costs, for the simple reason that this approach invites a reduction of needless duplication and thus a reduction of waste. (Note: It is not Big Pharma that is “the problem”; it is “the system” within which Big Pharma operates that needs to be cured.)
“In the world of interdependence, the goal would be to reach the goal the fastest possible way.”
Can we imagine how much shorter will the road from here to the discovery of a vaccine be? Can we imagine how much will the tempi of final success be accelerated? Can we imagine how many fathers and mothers will be spared the loss of a child, and how many children will be spared the loss of a parent?
Needless to say, this level of exchange of information will do much to favor transparency – and even honesty? – in a field as literally vital as pharmaceuticals.
Two more benefits of interdependence, once seriously experienced, are effects near and dear to the heart of any Concordian economics‘ proposal: a reduction of costs and an effective reduction of inequality.
The reduction of costs turns especially to the benefit of consumers on fixed income; the reduction of inequality turns to the benefit of everyone – rich and poor alike. Economic inequality is the long-term, hidden cause of steady economic instability and even cyclical financial crashes.
Another benefit: The degree of interdependence and transparency suggested here would make it nearly impossible for any “industrial complex” such as Big Pharma to control any public agency such as FDA.
APPENDIX
A Declaration of Economic Interdependence
A Working Draft
Fully appreciative of the many blessings of the Declaration of Independence it might now be an appropriate time to draft A DECLARATION OF ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE.
Whereas the Declaration of (Political) Independence has, without open discussion, been transformed into a Declaration of Personal Independence;
Whereas this ideology has given rise to the Age of Entitlements, an age dominated by the conception that there can ever be rights without responsibilities;
Whereas the lack of personal and civic responsibility has generated the conception of Life as One-Against-All
Whereas this emphasis on our own welfare – independent, if not at the expense, of the welfare of our fellow citizens has created economic insecurity for everyone, rich and poor alike,
We affirm that our greatest political need is to build a society in which the reality of Economic Interdependence is fully acknowledged.
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THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE are enunciated in A Bill of Economic Rights and Responsibilities.
The best explanation of economic interdependence that this writer has found is an article by Leonard E. Read entitled “I, Pencil“. It is available from The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. (www.fee.org).
A longer explanation of economic interdependence is contained in Carmine Gorga, The Economic Process: An Instantaneous Non-Newtonian Picture. Lanham, MD, and Oxford: University Press of America, 2002 and 2010.
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