Well, this might get a little political, but....
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore
So, in other words, Americans have found a new way to scam the rest of the planet: intellectual "property."
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Nah, anyone can play this game.
Sony is a Japanese company which bought several major content publishers, including a major movie studio and one of the 4 largest music publishers in the world.
IP laws are pretty much universal by now, although not necessarily strongly enforced everywhere.
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore
You can no longer dominate the world via industrial production, so....
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Actually we do dominate the industries, since the US is still the largest market and often decides what gets made. We just hire other people to do a lot of the work.
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore
Your lifestyle has been subsidized by the blood of countless other people inside and outside of your country, a country founded on the conquest of land from indigenous people, etc etc....
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And where do you live? The Land of Teddy Bears and Candy Canes?
Pretty much every society has an extensive history of violence, brutality, oppression and exploitation.
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbomore
I'm not saying that they contribute nothing to the research, but that the keystone they contribute is added to a broad foundation of publicly funded research. That being said, it is not all clear that a lack of IP would mean that there would be an insufficient return on investment: a large amount of money is made simply by being first in the market.
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They definitely do more than you acknowledge; e.g. Pfizer can easily spend $7 billion a year on R&D. It's usually up to the pharmaceuticals not only to run (and fund) human trials, but also to bear responsibility in the event that a drug fails and/or actually harms patients.
It's far from clear that "open source medicine" is able to fill the role of the pharmaceuticals. And in most cases, patent protection is fairly short (14 years iirc). Nor is it clear what alternative would necessarily produce a better solution.
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbomore
I implied that it was the new means by which America planned to keep its place as global hegemon...
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If the US doesn't do it, someone else will.
To wit, the Chinese don't particularly hold IP in high respect, and they are a good candidate for exerting global dominance in the 21st century. You really think they're going to treat anyone all that much fairer than the US has?
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Originally Posted by luqmaninbomore
while many countries have human rights abuses in their past, the system of organized exploitation and expropriation perpetrated by the West and specifically by the United States is unique in its intensity and in the degree which it has shaped the modern world.
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*cough* Japan's invasion of Manchuria *cough* China in Tibet *cough* Zimbabwe under Mugabi *cough* Chile under Pinochet *cough* Iran under the Shah, Iraq under Hussein, Saudi Arabian government....
Spanish conquistadors as a model of ethical behavior in invasions and colonial rule? That's your position? Really?
The only difference between the US and everyone else is a) how good we are at it, and b) how little Americans acknowledge their imperialism. Americans may believe they are exceptionally virtuous, but that is no more true than the idea that they are exceptionally evil.