A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.
Richard Feynman, “The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics,” Nobel Lecture (December 11, 1965).
Categories
Richard Feynman
Categories
Henry Hazlitt
In 1894, on November 28, economics journalist Henry Hazlitt was born. Hazlitt went on to write numerous books, including Economics in One Lesson, Time Will Run Back, and several works criticizing Keynesianism. He was the main proponent of the work of Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek in America during the 1940s and 1950s.
Exactly one year earlier, women voted in a national election for the first time . . . in New Zealand. On the same date in 1917, the Estonian Provincial Assembly declared itself the sovereign power of Estonia. November 28 also marks the independence of Mauritania from France (1960), and East Timor from Portugal.
Poland told Pfizer to stick it elsewhere. Now Pfizer’s suing for failure to pay for all the jabs . . . that Poland didn’t use. Or take. Or even allow in the country.
Pfizer’s a big company, of course, but you know we’re not talking about Celebrex or Fentanyl Citrate or Sonata here. We’re talking about The Jab. The one developed with BioNTech and contracted for by governments around the world.
As near as I can make out, it’s a breach of contract case.
But with a wrinkle.
Poland put a halt to pushing Pfizer’s COVID vaccine in April of 2022, and the people generally seem just fine with it, seeing as how they have a much, much lower rate of excess deaths now than does, say, Sweden, which pushed the vax for far longer.
But why couldn’t Poland simply stop usage of the jab?
After all, a customer shouldn’t be forced to take a medication, right?
Well, the contract was not between Pfizer and Poles individually — this is the modern, statist world, after all — or even collectively, corporately, through the state. The contract was between Pfizer and the European Union!
And elements were secret.
The Polish government, placed on the hook for the drug, was not allowed to see the whole contract.
Think of this as just one of the many ways that politicians who bash Big Pharma bent over backwards to give Big Pharma cushy, cushy deals.
But in court, how will those secret clauses play? I suspect that Pfizer’s prognosis may be negative.
Which would be a healthy outcome.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with PickFinder and Firefly
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts
Categories
Michael Polanyi
The columns of figures set out in governmental economic plans express claims to economic powers that are only imaginary. But belief in such powers may be induced by carrying out with great emphasis some fairly extensive economic policies — which cause a certain amount of stress and strain — and pretending that you are thereby putting into effect your economic plan, with all its figures.
Michael Polanyi, The Logic of Liberty: Reflections and Rejoinders (1951), p. 137.
Categories
Nobel Prizes
November 27, 1295, the first elected representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as “The Model Parliament.”
On the same date in 1895, Alfred Nobel (pictured) signed his last will and testament, thereby establishing the Nobel Prizes.
Free speech continues to recur as a major theme on this site. And no wonder: it’s under attack. But there is indeed more to it than that:
Categories
Javier Milei
In terms of political logic, I am a mistake, because what I have come to do is in fact stamp out the privileges of politicians.
Javier Milei, as quoted in Maximilan Heath, “Who is Javier Milei, Argentina’s new libertarian president?” Reuters (November 20, 2023).
Categories
A Grimké Day
November 26, 1792, saw the birth of Sarah Moore Grimké, American abolitionist and feminist. She was the elder sister of the equally famed Angelina Emily Grimké Weld.
Ah, Javier Milei:
Categories
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
People need to do their own research about everything. You live in a democracy, make up your own mind. One thing my father told me, people in authority lie. Part of the duty of living in a democracy is to maintain a posture of constant skepticism toward any aggregation of power. “Trusting the experts” is not something you do in a democracy. That’s not a feature of democracy or science; it’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., interviewed by VLAD TV, “Robert F Kennedy Jr Names the CIA Agents Who Killed His Uncle JFK (Part 6),” November 11, 2023.