In the case of Braille displays the expense isn't as much R & D as it is production costs. THere is an R & D cost because as Tommy pointed out most of these are done in foreign countries and not with "grant" money. Also there is an expense involved with getting grant money but... THe biggest expense is production costs and there simply aren't enough units sold to bring those down. ----- Original Message ----- From: "jude dashiell" <dashielljt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 13:53 Subject: Re: Papermeier Braillex ELBA note taker > The companies like aagi.com can be expected to have high prices at the > start of a product life cycle because of new technology. However over a > product life cycle prices should decrease or products need to be withdrawn > from the market. Research costs are no excuse for continued high prices > since grants are available to do research. Johnson & Johnson was given a > product by the Federal Government to market to deworm sheep called > lavamasol. Government research and been the sole research on this product > during its entire life cycle. The company marketed to farmers at $1.50 > per pill and made the pills golf ball sized. Then Government research > found out lavamasol could be used to fight human colon cancer. So Johnson > & Johnson made a pill of lavamasol for humans and charged $1,500.00 per > pill. Johnson & Johnson's lame excuse was research costs, well certainly > not on lavamasol. They're still getting away with it today so far as I > know and this outrage started during the Clinton administration. Guess > why your medical insurance costs so much. Those costs do get spread if > not for insurance then directly back to the taxpayer. The reason for that > is the Hill-Burton Act which helped out rural hospitals in america in > exchange for them keeping a certain number of beds open for people who > couldn't pay for hospitalization. If lavamasol gets used on those > patients, hospitals have to increase everyone's bill a little to pay for > it and those increases get paid by medical insurance and that's how these > prices go through the roof. Malpractice insurance is a red herring, the > fact is judges wipe out or minimize most malpractice judgements against > the medical profession anyway. Medicare hasn't had its price list updated > since the early 1970's and vendors and congress like it like that. > > -- > Registered as user #315636 with the Linux Counter, > http://counter.li.org/! > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list