October 30, 2000

Importing Price Controls
Humble Imperialism
Giving Charity a Chance

Importing Price Controls

President Bill Clinton on Saturday signed into law legislation allowing the reimportation of U.S.-made drugs from other countries, according to Reuters. U.S.-made prescription medicines are often far less expensive in countries outside the United States.

The provision, opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, lets pharmacists and wholesalers buy U.S. brand-name drugs in countries with lower prices, such as Canada, and resell them at a discount in the United States. Previously, only manufacturers could reimport drugs.

In "Manufacturing a Pharmaceutical Crisis," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow explains that what reimportation supporters really desire is price controls. Since cheaper drug prices overseas are usually the result of price controls by foreign governments, the new legislation "would effectively subject U.S. firms to foreign restrictions," he writes.

In the Regulation magazine article "Making Sense of Drug Prices," Patricia M. Danzon writes that "any form of price regulation, including the setting of uniform prices within the United States or cross-nationally, would discourage innovation and competition."

Humble Imperialism

The New York Times reports today that if elected president, Al Gore says he will use America's military and economic power for peace-keeping and nation-building. Yet when asked in a recent interview how he would deal with all the festering resentments that American power engenders around the world, he paused for a moment and uttered two words: "Strategic humility." He smiled at the phrase as he coined it, but never elaborated on how it would mesh with his interventionist inclinations.

George W. Bush, in contrast, argues that an overextended American military should gradually pull out of the Balkans, but insists on building a national missile defense. Asked in the second presidential debate to describe his philosophy for projecting American power, Bush said, "If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us."

The Cato Handbook for Congress says Congress should act as a much-needed check on the executive branch’s reflexive tendency to expand the global political and military role of the United States and initiate a comprehensive review of existing U.S. security commitments, jettisoning those not clearly linked to vital national security interests.

In "The Interventionist Follies," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow warns that "foolish attempts at nation-building risk turning all of America into a war zone." In "Does U.S. Intervention Overseas Breed Terrorism?" Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland writes that there may be too much focus on deterring terrorism rather than understanding what motivates it.

Giving Charity a Chance

America's leading charities raised more than $38 billion last year, an increase of 13 percent over 1998, according to The Washington Post. The Salvation Army led the 1999 survey of the top 400 charities for the eighth straight year, receiving $1.4 billion in cash and donated goods, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The top 400 accounted last year for about a fifth of charitable giving nationwide, which has steadily increased over the past decade, especially in the last three years. The YMCA of the USA ranked second with $693.3 million in donations, followed by the American Red Cross, which saw a 25 percent increase in contributions to $678.3 million.

In "Civil Society to the Rescue," Director of Health and Welfare Studies Michael Tanner explains the benefits of private charity over state welfare. In the Cato book, "Generosity: Virtue in Civil Society," moral philosopher Tibor R. Machan places generosity among the human virtues and shows why virtue requires moral choice rather than coercion. He argues that generosity can be cultivated only in freedom because there is no virtue in a compulsory act.

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