ABC has no shame in their mission...

and you keep on harping on this $40k figure, as if every prosthetic out there is going to cost a year's wages and your first born male child. the truth is that there are a range of prosthetics on the market in a variety of prices, from the relatively affordable to the outlandish. is that $40k arm really worth the money? maybe and maybe not, but everyone is going to be getting that sort of top of the line merchandise. is an aston-martin worth its outrageous price tag? maybe and maybe not, but most drivers aren't going to be running out and purchasing their own exotic luxury car. we don't all get the best, we get what we can and make due with its limitations.

and you completely ignore the significance of volume. all these things are sold constantly, by the millions, and the return on investment is made much more quickly than more specialized equipment such as prosthetics. but then, you knew that. that's grade school stuff we all understand.

 

Agreed. But these students made almost the same arm for $350. That's quite an innovation, and American innovation at its finest.

The difference here is that you can't 3D print an Aston Martin or Porsche. And we're also talking about an arm, not a luxury item.

 

Some people could. Better than the none who could before.

Nobody "insisted" on anything. We are grateful and proud of what they did, but we know that cannot always be counted on (obviously, since it's rare enough that it made the news in the first place). For some reason, though, the OP decided to get bent out of shape over it. Sure, the profit motive is an incentive, but the OP seems pissed that someone would do something for any other reason than profit.

 

But now that the 3D model has been made, it can be used over and over. The program has been written already.

 

here we go again. need i remind you that they did it without all the necessities involved in the creation of a viable concern?

it pains all of us to see a child with a missing limb or some other injury or disease. the fact remains that not everyone receives the best of everything, even something as necessary as an arm. could this child have gotten a lesser quality prosthetic? possibly so, i don't know. we would all like to see every child in such a situation receive not just the best in prosthetics, but a real arm to replace what he was born without. the reality is, as i have said, that we don't all get what we want.

 

I thought maybe they'd come with a principled attack on patents and intellectual property, but no - it looks like you're right.

 

Yep, and the fact that a person in need can now, and for all eternity, get an arm for a reasonable price is just rubbing some people raw. They keep acting like these big R&D corporations invented the concept of an arm in the first place, when in fact they've just been aping God's product from the beginning.

 

And again, I told you before that I get that an arm should not cost just $350. What this has shown us is that we can do things cheaper than we've been told, certain for less than $40,000.

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Yes, like I said, $350 is far too inexpensive. But $40,000 is far too much given the length of time prosthetics have been made.

 

Why is it too inexpensive? It seems to me that if they can make one for that amount, and now they've shown you how to make it for that amount, then that is the proper price. And if someone figures out how to do it even cheaper, then THAT would be the proper price.

 

we seem to be going around in circles here and it is getting a bit boring. what was stated in the op was not anger over the deed itself, but at the implication that it was the profit motive that was to blame for this child's inability to get a top of the line prosthetic in the first place. though i don't see it as that big a deal, being used to the constant jabs at the business community by a decidedly liberal leaning media, i suppose it is worth pointing out this bias from time to time.

 

See, I didn't read that "implication" into the news piece in the first place. Someone saying "$40,000 is too damn high for something that can be made for a few hundred dollars" is not the same thing as an indictment of the whole profit-making system. Do you think that profit motive as a concept is being attacked every time someone complains about high prices? Especially prices that seem egregiously high, like they're just gouging a captive market?

 

Engineering students do stuff like this all the time. I remember my classmates final products were things like wheel chairs controlled by eye movements, robotic platforms for chemical detection, rfid systems for tools (to make sure none are lying about), a collapsible 40 ft ladder that fits in a rucksack, etc and you're lucky to have a $500 budget to prototype these things. Take these ideas to many companies and the infrastructure for such things is already in place.

People also forgot to list (in addition to engineering labor, materials, and infrastructure) that people are also paying for overhead, marketing costs, industrial designing, etc. and products are sold at the highest price point that allows for greatest profit for the shareholders.

My take: Sell a product as high as you want, but don't call things like this "misleading" or "fake" just because other factors besides prototyping and fabrication make products cost more.

 

We should let the Liberals Tax, Regulate, Mandate, Sue and Propagandize all of those evil, profiteering Prosthetic Companies right out of existence!

Once those evil companies are gone, things for the people who are lame, crippled and disabled will be so much better!

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Umm... it's a printer.

Think of it like your printer. I don't have to spend the months of research... carefully crafting the document you have generated. As your lackey, my labor would include pressing "print" and maybe adding paper or toner (extruding material).

 

The costs involved in the production of the prototype are obviously understated and not at all realistic outside the collegiate bubble where developers have to actually PAY for manufacturing labor, facilities, machinery and design. In the real world folks, these things are not gratuities. On the flip side, the 40,000.00 price tag on commercially available upper extremity prosthetics is on the extreme high end.

 

Carbon.

 

Its not based on nothing, 40k is a lot of money and one has to wonder if others can do this cheaper. If they can , the price for everyone will go down. Normal competition.

 

ObombaCare INCLUDES a new medical device tax.

 

Yea, I understand the printer thing, but I also understand the design process involved. It's what I do for a living. And don't misunderstand, I'm not discrediting these people for what they accomplished, it's pretty cool, but $350.00......well....lets just say I'm a tad skeptical.

 

LOL. Confirmed talking head. That liberal media is in business to make money. So you're saying they're taking jabs at themselves. As they are part of a business community.

 

Where to begin indeed!

How about here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/health/for-medical-tourists-simple-math.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

So, are you saying that markets work, and are the answer? It sure sounds like it?

But you don't have a history of being a free markets kind of guy?

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Me personally, I have nothing against profits. Where I get concerned though are the areas where private companies try to squeeze as much profit out of necessary things like medicine, power, water, etc. Car companies, watch companies, computer companies, clothing companies, etc etc etc etc can all charge whatever they want because we don't actually need them to survive. Sure they make life easier and they make life more convenient and some may even be tools you would use to make money with, but none are essential to survival.

Sears overcharging for stuff = no problem with me

Power company/drug company overcharging for necessary power or life saving medicine = Me calling for tougher regulation

I don't worship profits and I don't think people should ever expect things for free. But in the middle of that, where I am, I see companies who produce good or services essential to survival as being held to a higher standard and a lower profit margin if that means keeping product cost down to where it's affordable for as many people as possible.

 

Pro baseball games are overpriced because you can see little league games for free.
How much did Peter Stuyvescent's wooden leg cost?
ABC should tell us how much it used to cost them to do the news back when it was one man at a desk reading copy.
The anchor should explain why he gets paid 10 times more than the reporters who might get killed on the job and 50 times more than the people who wrote the script he's reading.
His job is easier than the camera man's, and I'm sure they could find 365 people a year to do it for the union minimum.

 

It's liberal logic . Everything is broken down to its simplest point . Cavemen weren't that ignorant ! EVen they knew that you had to make fire and not wait for a tree to be hit by lightning.