Trump Could Frankly Learn a Lot From Denmark

I joke—a little. The Danish government does not set prices for prescription drugs. However, manufacturers do have to notify the Danish Medicines Agency of proposed price changes every 14 days. Also, by law, prescription drugs are sold for the same price at every pharmacy in the country. Oh, and this too—pharmaceutical manufacturers aren’t allowed to advertise directly to consumers; only to healthcare professionals. That cuts costs by many billions right there. In the United States, of course, half the advertising on television is for prescription drugs. (The other half is for online gambling apps.)
I don’t have a strong position on Trump’s Greenland ploy. Part of me has to admit that it makes a certain sense, assuming we accept the idea that the planet is warming. If those northern waters become navigable, I guess it’ll be good for the United States to have control over them—at least in the few short years that humanity will, in those circumstances, have left. Of course, Trump doesn’t accept the idea that the planet is warming, although maybe this is proof that deep down he does. And maybe he’s thinking that the capital city of Nuuk, like the Gaza City of Trump’s imaginings, might be a beachfront playground for the rich someday and a nice home for a future Trump hotel and casino.
My guess is that Trump just likes the idea because he looks at a map sees that Greenland is just so yuge. I wonder if anyone has explained to him that maps, drawn since the 1700s in something called the Mercator Projection, which converts the actual Earth’s curved lines into straight lines so it’s easier to read, but which exaggerates the size of land bodies near the poles. In real life, Greenland is larger than Libya but smaller than Algeria. On the other hand, Trump doesn’t care much about reality. He cares about how things look. So as long as Greenland looks massive, it’s all good.