Thread by @gauravsabnis

Just a reminder that capitalism ki original dukaan USA has been giving the vaccine for free to everyone. Trump and Biden disagreed on almost everything but not this. Not even Donald Trump, chindhichor supreme, did not nickle and dime his own citizens for a vaccine in a crisis.

Your alumni/RWA whatsapp warriors might be pushing lies or at least half-truths about US vaccination being paid or only for the insured or only for citizens or some such nonsense. False. If you see those bhakt lies, respond with this. From the C D effing C!

Donald Trump legally made millions from taxpayers for his properties while president, made military make unnecessary stops so he could make an extra buck. Even that bhikari traitor didn't think, hey, vaccine everyone needs is the time to try "market" reforms and cut costs.

Most of the supposedly most educated elites in India think that only those who pay direct income tax count as taxpayers. It's a wilfully disingenuous cruel whine first created by US conservatives. Spread to indian elites through US libertarian blogs. Amplified by Kiran Shaw etc.

Sabko john galt ya dagny taggart hona mangta hai indian elites mein, pandemic ke bilkul beech mein.

Can't believe this needs to be spelled out, but here goes.
A vaccine for a highly contagious global pandemic that brought the modern world to a standstill is, by definition, a public good. It is NOT a private good and anyone arguing economics about India's pricing is an idiot.

Unless you're an anti-vaxxer (in which case, unfollow me), you will agree that literally everyone will eventually need to get this vaccine. Like previous generations needed polio and smallpox vaccines. It's a public cost. Population × cost of vaccine, which is a public cost.

It is NOT a private good like your rent or your lunch bill that houses or feeds you per your convenience. A vaccine is something given individually, but working collectively. It is as basic a public good as a road. You may put tolls on expressways, but will you toll pedestrians?

Saying "get it free at our few underfunded creaking government hospitals or then go to the free market" is like saying walk on only 10% roads that are government owned, but to walk anywhere else, figure out the toll with whatever private party owns that road.

Pretty much every other government I can think of, even supposedly fiscal conservative ones, recognize the absolutely straightforward imperative of giving it for "free". Which is not really "free". Everyone pays enough taxes, direct or indirect, to cover the cost easily.

Plus the vaccine is REALLY cheap per head. Literally any government can swallow the costs without any real trouble. For example, India's spending in just Siachen last year was equal to what Poonawalla got in extra funding this week - ₹3000 crore.

Think about that. India spends ₹30 per adult per year just in Siachen. Just one glacier, pointlessly maintained by both india and pakistan at great taxpayer cost. Just Siachen!
You think ₹500/head is prohibitively expensive for Modi? Nah! This is some lazy sadism.