I read the book, and this is only the start. For a piece of fiction, it is hitting way to close for comfort! (pac)
The Delray Beach, Fla.-based company VeriChip Corp. has announced plans to implant 200 Alzheimer's patients in Palm Beach County with radio-frequency identification chips as part of a pilot study to test the new technology. According to VeriChip's CEO Scott Silverman, the VeriMed chip will eventually provide peace of mind to the families of Alzheimer's patients by providing a safety net in case a patient should get lost. The chip is not a GPS device, Silverman emphasized, and cannot be used to track people in whom it is implanted. All the participants in the two-year study are volunteers, and Silverman expressed pleasure with the study's reception so far.
The article is and should be a warning of things to come. The cancer scare is obviously not putting off too many plans.
The article is and should be a warning of things to come. The cancer scare is obviously not putting off too many plans.
Consumers are seen as expendable items.
ReplyDeleteIf cigarettes are described as 'delivery devices' for addictive compounds, then consumers are simply receptacles for consumer items...no thought required.
I have got to wonder if a view of consumable consumers is valid. Not that I am questioning your point that producers view the consumer as the lowest common denominator, no, I agree there. However it's in the producers best interest to maintain an existing consumer base instead of grooming new ones to replace attrition. I know that runs contra to the actions of the cigarette companies, however it must be noted that early on, they didn't know that the product was so dangerous. I have to think that their action were a reaction to the discovery that the product was toxic. I am not explaining it away now. I think some of the marketing practices were and are reprehensible, and the industry as a whole is morally bankrupt. I just have to think though, coming as I do from a manufacturing background, that viewing the consumer as a means to an end and not the end seems counter productive.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point you raise, and as my characters discuss in the mallcity sequel 'Return to Mallcity', it's a case of balancing the pharma profits to be gained from cigarette induced diseases (for eg), and the average ('voluntary') spending/consumer power of a healthy consumer. Considered like this, long term illness can often be far, far more profitable....and you know how the 'Cover-Up council' works...industry profits always come first!
ReplyDeleteShaun, now I just had a scary though. You use the term 'voluntary' spending
ReplyDeleteand I thought...how odd, is there anything else....and then it hit me. Involuntary spend. What would that entail? Then I wondered how many companies like cigarettes and maybe even the auto companies have substantial holdings in the medical field. Am I being paranoid by suggesting that these companies may actually manufacture their own consumers?