UnitedHealthcare executive fatally shot in Manhattan, reports say
UnitedHealthcare executive fatally shot in Manhattan, reports say
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literally double the industry average, which is already abysmally high
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The attack appeared to be targeted, the New York Times reported, citing police. Investigators believe the gunman had been waiting in the area for some time before Thompson's arrival ahead of an investors meeting, CNN reported. The shooting happened not long before a scheduled UnitedHealth investor conference in Manhattan, which was cut short at about 9 a.m., roughly an hour after it kicked off as news of the shooting trickled out. UnitedHealthcare is the largest U.S. health insurer, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for healthcare than in any other country.
Consumer frustration with the U.S. healthcare system runs high and was the driving force behind the U.S. Affordable Care Act, which created a new type of health insurance and mandated coverage for preventative care as well as maximum profit levels. A cyberhack early in 2024 by another UnitedHealth company called Change that provided technology for most U.S. providers affected more than one third of Americans, who had their information stolen. Millions of providers experienced disruption in their businesses that lasted months, delaying care for patients and even salaries for healthcare employees.
Reuters trying really hard to not say the thing we are all thinking out loud. I'm not going to say that I wish death on CEOs, but it's really not hard to imagine why someone might want one of these leeches dead.
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There's really no other answer as they have forgotten the lessons of their forebearers. When the working class can take no more they do not die, they kill. They don't mean to, they don't want to, they would rather slowly die than kill, but they kill all the same.
Employers used to be dragged out into the street along with their family and beat to death in front of their family if they failed to provide a fair deal to their employees; even as capital paid for protection in the military or police, that did nothing to stop the workers, as workers are not slaves and are not raised to understand themselves as such.
As capital once again ruins the good will that keeps it alive, this will just happen more and more. It takes one bad day to make a good person decide that suicide is not an adventure for a single person.
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I wouldn't say no other. Rich assholes probably also make a lot of personal enemies. But there have to be many thousands of people with a deadly grudge against someone whose business is all about denying lifesaving coverage to people who dutifully paid the premiums that boosted their bottom lines.
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I do genuinely detest expressions of joy at the misfortune of others, even when I think the others have earned that misfortune, but I just cannot help the schadenfreude with this one. Feeling bad about feeling good is a weird headspace.
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Maybe it's not exactly being happy that the person is dead, but being happy that there's been a net positive gain for society.
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Relief and happiness are similar but distinct. You can be relieved at the fact that a terrible person can no longer systematically disenfranchise so many and cause pain and suffering for others.
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(my attorney has advised me to state that I think murdering CEOs is checks notes wrong)
tangentially related:
11 children worked 'dangerous' night shift at Iowa pork plant, investigators say
A sanitation contractor has been fined nearly $172,000
Burger King, Popeyes fined more than $2 million for violating child labor laws
poor people go to jail when they get caught committing crimes. wealthy people pay a fine and move on with their lives. usually the fine is small enough that they can just treat it as a cost of doing business.
when people can commit crimes without feeling any real consequences, vigilante justice like this is an entirely predictable outcome.
(and of course, there's a whole additional layer to this problem, where there's a ton of corporate malfeasance and misbehavior that harms society but technically isn't a crime because of some loophole or another...those child labor law violations are one of the few examples where employing children is unambiguously against the law as well as being relatively easy to prove)
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It is wrong and very illegal, but unfortunately ethical
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Oh, wow. I certainly was not expecting an assassination of a CEO anytime soon, despite how chaotic things are going to get. If the executive class starts feeling like they're on the chopping block, things could get very bad for the working class, especially with Trump on the horizon. Unlike us, they have class solidarity.
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they also need us to live. our labor is their wealth. the tighter they squeeze, the more things slip through their fingers.
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Frankly, I'm surprised we got this deep into the cyberpunk dystopian future without seeing a high-profile corporate assassination like this.
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This was easy to predict. Record profits, high stress for the working class, two justice systems. The inequality and helplessness lead to this and was preventable systemic, but, you know, shareholders.
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Speaking on condition of anonymity, one officer stated that the current pool of suspects include anyone with any sort of knowledge of UHC's method of making money. "We'll proceed with the operation's scheduling as soon as we receive pre-authorization, but of course," he said, "pre-authorization is obviously not a guarantee that a given service will be covered."
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I'd send thoughts and prayers, but thoughts and prayers are out of network.
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Relevant link:
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Now that's what I call praxis.
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Only one way to learn I guess
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Finally going after vermin instead of schoolchildren. Good. Slow progress is still progress. Hopefully, consequently, toppling the toxic system that produces these vermin in the first place.
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I feel like I'm Chidi Anagonye. I feel like murder is always wrong, but on the other hand, the death of this man has immediately changed insurance approval rates and almost certainly saved more than one life.
I don't advocate violence and at the same time, I can't help but see the justice.
Also, this: https://imgur.com/a/yczbSDa
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