5 ms·
I'd rather see them shut down the FDA than 23andMe
by jacoblyles 13y ago
I'd rather see them shut down the FDA than 23andMe
- cscurmudgeon 13y agoI am not a big fan of possible snake oil even if it comes in hipster startup form.
- snitko 13y agoGreat, don't use it then. Why do you believe you have the right to tell other people what to buy for their money?
- consonants 13y agoWhy do you believe the pursuit of profits trumps the democratic decisions of the people?
- cscurmudgeon 13y ago>> Why do you believe you have the right to tell other people what to buy for their money? I am not doing that. The FDA is doing that. That is their job. If you disagree with that, you should also be okay with charlatans selling snake oil.
- snitko 13y agoYou are paying for it with your tax money, therefore you are doing it. I'm not okay with selling snake oil, but I think it is wrong to prevent other people from buying it. It's okay to inform them it's a bad idea to buy certain things - it's dictatorship to prevent them from doing so. If you can't convince somebody, it's your problem, not that person's problem. FDA doesn't convince, it just comes and shuts you down or doesn't allow you on the market. Besides, where is FDA when charlatans sell homeopathic medicine? Show me a little consistency here.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- cscurmudgeon 13y agoI never said that the FDA is perfect or covers all bad cases. Just because a few bad apples can escape the law now, in letter, does not mean that we should not have regulation. Medical regulation is far from dictatorship. It is orthogonal to it. Just because a govt. prevents from doing X, does not mean by default that the govt. is a dictatorship. X has to be something basic like the right to live or the right to free speech. The FDA is not brutishly shutting down 23andme. They seem to have reasonably tried to work with 23andme. But the startup has been stubborn.
- snitko 13y agoYou don't get my point. I'm questioning the existence of the FDA itself. What's your excuse for not letting each individual decide for himself what he wants to spend his money on? It's his money after all. He didn't ask you to pay for what he wants. What is your problem with that?
- hackinthebochs 13y agoMassive information asymmetry means it is highly likely that people will be taken advantage of. The FDA balances the information asymmetry of the public and a product by defining a process that allows companies to make certain claims.
- snitko 13y agoThis doesn't answer the question of why FDA bans products and services instead of simply informing consumers of possible dangers and letting them decide for themselves. Government has the largest resources to reach out to people, so any message it would want to communicate, it could. If the government really cared about consumers, it would go after homeopathy dealers, religious leaders and other charlatans. Never gonna happen. Why do you think that is? Why homeopathy existed for such a long time and never had any problems with authorities, but a startup that actually provides some value to people, suddenly is a threat that needs to be shut down?