If I asked you to guess the least popular business sector in the United States, what would you say?

Here's a hint.

The very low approval rating of this industry nearly ties it with the federal government.

According to Gallup, only about a third of Americans give this industry a positive rating.

It is so unpopular that even the very, very unpopular federal government attacks it all

the time.

The decisions of every leaning from Rand Paul, the Republican Senator from Kentucky,

big farm on manipulates the system to keep prices high, to Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic

Senator from Massachusetts.

And a lot of that money that is spent lobbying Congress is to keep drug prices high.

From Donald Trump, the drug companies frankly are getting away with murder.

To Bernie Sanders.

I have been fighting the greed of the prescription drug industry for decades.

And as far as I can tell, the pharmaceutical industry always wins.

And here's an interesting twist.

The pharmaceutical industry is also the most charitable industry in America.

According to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the top three American companies for charitable

contributions are Pfizer, Gilead Sciences, and Merck, also in the top ten Bristol-Mires

Squibb and Eli Lilly.

It's hard to imagine that being so charitable is what makes them unpopular.

Probably makes more sense to think that their charity is meant to mitigate their unpopularity,

although it doesn't seem to be working so well.

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