Big pharma, in the United States, has become an extremely profitable market. Many joining the field in hopes of riches, but that’s not how the prescription business started. With the creation of the original vaccines and medications many doctors and scientists rejoiced a cure or crutch for diseases and disorders. There seemed to be a genuine interest in helping others and sharing the findings. However, in modern day, many search for new medications in order to gain a large profit. This is seen by the excessive price of many prescriptions, company’s margins, and lack of policy capping prescription prices. You may wonder, why is big pharma such a big and profitable industry? Big pharma has found a way to justify high prices by claiming that research cost billions of dollars and treating prescriptions like a business opportunity. While, yes, research costs money, yes, prescriptions are sold but, millions of Americans can’t afford their life saving prescriptions as big pharma is now. Many prescriptions are unattainable because of the price regardless of the importance of the drug. Many of our elderly population requires multiple over priced prescriptions. With their lack of employment and living on savings and social security, it’s not enough money to live a healthy life. While there have been a few price caps already put in place, it’s not enough. Prescriptions like insulin have become capped the machine to inject it still remains absurdly expensive. Prescription that help with hemoglobin and autoimmune diseases have become exceedingly expensive even though these medications are required for the treatment. Insulin isn’t the only expensive prescription that needs a price cap. Big pharma cannot continue to be run like a business but be run as live saving service. As America doesn’t have universal health care and with prescription prices rising, there should be a federal policy capping the price for all prescription medications.

1st Body topic: Insulin cap

• insulin prescription has been caped
• WEPA ACT
• Biden administration cap
• Why isn’t the injector capped too

2nd Body topic: Other prescription that aren’t capped

• hemoglobin prescriptions
• autoimmune disease prescriptions
• make policy that caps these prescriptions

3rd body topic: The elderly issues with perscriptions

• the elderly are the most affected
• have bad insurance
• little savings
• social security isn’t enough

4th body topic: Bad insurance and paying the research

• insurances don’t cover all prescriptions
• Make policy for universal health care
  • specified to elderly
• Find better ways to pay for prescription research

Conclusion

Big pharma, in the United States, has become an extremely profitable market. Many joining the field in hopes of riches, but that’s not how the prescription business started. With the creation of the original vaccines and medications many doctors and scientists rejoiced a cure or crutch for diseases and disorders. There seemed to be a genuine interest in helping others and sharing the findings. However, in modern day, many search for new medications in order to gain a large profit. This is seen by the excessive price of many prescriptions, company’s margins, and lack of policy capping prescription prices. You may wonder, why is big pharma such a big and profitable industry? Big pharma has found a way to justify high prices by claiming the research cost billions of dollars and treating prescriptions like a business opportunity. While, yes, research costs money, yes, prescriptions are sold but, millions of Americans can’t afford their life saving prescriptions as big pharma is now. As America doesn’t have universal health care and with prescription prices rising, there should be a federal policy capping the price of prescription medications.

When I was debating my topic I struggled finding a story I related to that also could be made into a belief. When I discovered my topic I reading one of the assigned articles that touched lightly on a tipping culture and I realized that I had a story. When I was writing the speech I often reflected on my own time as a server and how I felt when I wasn’t tipped appropriately. I reflected on my actions while I was serving: was I attentive to the tables, was I moving at a quick enough pace. Overall, I enjoyed writing my speech as it was a topic that I am passionate about.

Personal is Political:

A series of blogs where I discuss stories from my life and apply them to political issues. Then I will discuss why we should care about the topic or why we shouldn’t care as a society. Sifting topics and political ideas and deciding on whether or not they are worth speaking on.

Civic Issues:

Series of blogs that take an ethical analysis in pop culture such as is south park to offensive for television, do rappers glamorize gang activity, are the kardashians a bad influence for young girls.

Wages in America often vary by the kind of job a person holds. However, one of the most complexing and intricate manners of being paid is surprisingly a simple serving job. While usually jobs like teaching, doctors, higher level accountants, etc… have a salary and lower level jobs like fast food and retail have an hourly rate while servers and bartenders make most of their money vis tips. This is unusual because the company itself isn’t paying most their employee’s pay. It is up to us, the general public, to pay the wages of these workers. Restaurants and bars figured out that they could avoid paying their employees pay if the public could tip their servers/bartenders enough to meet minimum wage. However, with a toxic tipping culture uprising, inflation rising, and a decline in restaurant goers, post Covid-19, tips just don’t seem to make ends meet anymore. This has overall, diminished tips and the overall salary of these workers. I believe that servers/bartenders deserve to be tipped an appropriate amount.

To start off this discussion, I would like to define an appropriate tip. In today’s climate with a rise in inflation and modern dollar not being worth what it was ten years ago, a small tip just doesn’t pay the bills. Restaurants often pay their servers and bartenders a below minimum wage around two dollars an hour and expect their tips to get them a livable wage. However, the guests in restaurants want to pay as little as possible to save money, which is understandable. These contradictory values often end up with servers and bartenders being underpaid and unable to pay the bills. So, for now while server’s livelihood ride on making tips the appropriate tip would be 18-22%.

While servers should always be trying their best to service their tables, mistakes are often made. Weather it be due to a servers neglect to the tables or the kitchen missing an order, the server is often the one blamed by the guest. This means that regardless of who made the mistake even if it wasn’t the server, it’s the server’s tips that suffer.  Many people also try to complain about their service on purpose so that their check gets reduced and avoid tipping. This shows that many people want a service but don’t want to pay for it.

In my own experience as a server I have often been tipped poorly at tables I’ve done my best work on. I would make sure their orders were correct, grab every drink refill, and add some personality but, I would often fall flat on the tip. Many other servers have a similar experience and have more on the line then I do. Almost all servers/bartenders rely on their tips. If their not being tipped appropriately to their service or for the society that we are in many will not be able to pay the bills.

Overall, many people go to restaurants but don’t think about the effect that their tip has on their server’s life. Many want a service but don’t want to pay for it. Many would rather save money then take care of their servers. While I understand not tiiping well if your server is legitimately a bad server and not doing their job. However, if your server is doing their job to the best of their ability, they should be tipped appropriately. So, I believe that servers/bartenders deserve to be tipped appropriately.

Works Cited

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/business/covid-restaurant-industry/index.html

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips#:~:text=A%20tipped%20employee%20engages%20in,equals%20the%20federal%20minimum%20wage.

This I Believe:

• A podcast about how I believe that abortion is a human right
• A podcast about how I believe that global warming is coming soon
• A podcast about how I believe that humanity is inherently good

Personal is Political:

• A series of blog where I discuss stories from my life and apply them to political issues where I discuss why we should care about the topic or why we shouldn’t care as a society.
• Random stories from my life that applies to politics
• Stories about aging like sweet sixteen, getting drivers license, graduation high school, first pimple

Civic Issues:

• Series of blogs about various issues that occur in the environment such deforestation, coral bleaching, or global warming
• Series of blogs that take an ethical analysis in pop culture such as is south park to offensive for television, do rappers glamorize gang activity, are the kardashians a bad influence for young girls

My first idea is the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Prior to the overturning abortion was legal on a federal level. While it was legal many people viewed abortion as murder and morally wrong. While others have viewed abortion as a healthcare service.  Programs like planned parenthood have been protestested by groups. However, the real question is: is abortion murder? Many use their religious beliefs to back their pro-life agenda but, is that belief applicable to law?

My other idea is: should gender affirming healthcare be provided to minors? Many argue that minors are not mature enough to know what gender they feel is right for them. While others believe that children are able to choose and make their own decisions around gender affirming healthcare. Many people also believe that gender affirming healthcare is wrong all together and against religions and science.  Should gender affirming healthcare be limited to children or should anyone be able to receive gender affirming healthcare.

ted talk pp

The link above is to the power point for my slides.

https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_soojung_kim_pang_how_rest_can_make_you_better_at_your_job?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

I really like how Pang speaks on a healthy work life balance. He talks about the importance of rest and how it affects our brain. He did great job using scientific evidence to prove his point.

For my ted talk I could speak on the shift of work culture. The older generations believe the ideology of working hard will get you a promotion and everything you need. However, this ideology changed in the younger generations. They value work relationships and believe and experience that working hard may not get you everything you need. With increases in cost while pay stays the same means hard work will not pay the bills.

Another idea is that women of todays generation are less likely to have children young or even at all. While older generations had children at a young age prioritizing family over anything else. While the younger generation seems to prioritize careers and individualism. Due to the increased notion of individualism in women, the population of newborns will decrease over the years.

I think I did a decent job with coming up with a lens to look at my artifact with. However, I could have done a better job with coming up with commonplaces and relating them to my artifact. I also could have practiced a little more as I mixed up a few words. I could have expanded on my topic more than I did. I think I did good job ordering and organizing my information.I learned how I should carry my voice from watching Cooper’s speech. He did a great job carrying his speech and I hope to be able to do the same in my future speeches.

I really liked how Cooper talked a lot about the symbolism behind the American Flag and how our lack of gun control goes against those beliefs. I also think he carried his voice very well. I thought his artifact was thoughtful and that he was thoughtful with how he presented his information. His construction of his speech was well thought out.