From 1978 to 1997, James Burke hosted a marvelous series of TV programs on technological development called Connections. Its thesis was:
[O]ne cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt
of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events,
each one consisting of a person or group acting for reasons of their
own (e.g., profit, curiosity, religious) motivations with no concept of
the final, modern result of what either their or their contemporaries'
actions finally led to. The interplay of the results of these isolated
events is what drives history and innovation . . . .
We need a new series called "Disconnections," which would highlight the unsettling fact that many of America's elite seem to have little concept of cause and effect in the real world, and that their collective ignorance is capable of doing great damage.
The assault on pharmaceutical research is a good example. From Shrinkwrapped:
In a brief conversation this morning, a very liberal social worker
expressed disdain for the company which was supplying free medication
to one of her patients. The patient has Bipolar Disorder and has found
stability only with a pair of very expensive brand name medicines not
yet available as generics (ie, still on patent.) When I remarked that
it costs well in excess of a billion dollars to bring a new drug to
market and that the companies would stop doing so if there was no
profit to be made, she sneered and remarked that she didn't feel bad
for the drug companies. The reality, that if we beggar the drug
companies we will forfeit the innovations and advances in medicine that
promise to enhance our lives and extend our longevity, is simply
inconceivable to her. The bureaucrats who increase regulation and
thereby increase costs of new medical advances (whether drugs or other
innovations) will never be identified, let alone held responsible for
increasing sickness and death in the name of preventing bad effects of
innovation.