As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.
Drug company payments to doctors are a small part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals as part of a broader strategy to profit from healthcare.
Robert Reichβs quote highlights the problematic nature of financial interactions between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, suggesting that the payments are only a minor aspect of a systemic issue where Big Pharma prioritizes profit over patient welfare. It implies that these financial incentives contribute to a larger exploitation of patients, influencing medical practices and decisions to favor corporate interests rather than ethical ones.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about healthcare reform at a conference, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for regulatory changes.
More from Robert Reich
All quotes βWhat are called 'public schools' in many of America's wealthy communities aren't really 'public' at all. In effect, they're private schools, whose tuition is hidden away in the purchase price of upscale homes there, and in the corresponding property taxes.
What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.
Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.
The dirty little secret is that both houses of Congress are irrelevant. ... America's domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and America's foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. ...when the president decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress.
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
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In my Nobel lecture, I suggested we had until the year 2000 to tame the population monster, and then food shortages would take us under. Now I believe we have a little longer.
The problem with data is that it says a lot, but it also says nothing. 'Big data' is terrific, but it's usually thin. To understand why something is happening, we have to engage in both forensics and guess work.
String theory has the potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe - from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars; from the primordial fireball of the big bang to the majestic swirl of heavenly galaxies - are reflections of one, grand physical principle, one master equation.
Any difficulties which the world faces today will be as nothing compared to the full effects which global warming will have on the world-wide economy.
Those who have learned to walk on the threshold of the unknown worlds, by means of what are commonly termed par excellence the exact sciences, may then, with the fair white wings of imagination, hope to soar further into the unexplored amidst which we live.
The main difficulty is finding an idea that really excites me. We live in an age when miracles are no longer miracles, and science and the future are losing their sense of mystery. For science fiction, or at least the type of science fiction I write, this development is almost fatal, but I'm still giving it all I've got.