Repulsed by Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli? Maybe You Also Hate Capitalism.
February 22, 2016
Repulsed by Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli? Maybe You Also Hate Capitalism.
Far from being some kind of moral outlier, the pharma-bro embodies all of our economic system’s defining characteristics.
BY Jesse Myerson
Watching Martin Shkreli “respectfully decline” to testify before the House Oversight Committee, it is almost possible to feel grateful to the reviled 32-year-old hedge fund capitalist: he knows we love to hate him, and he generously offers up so much to hate.
His bat-like smirk conveying the sense of invincibility that must accompany a 9-digit portfolio, arched eyebrows begging his questioners for another opportunity to invoke the Fifth Amendment, to unveil another simper for the cameras—it’s enough to make ones fingers tingle with the urge to punch.
Satisfying though it might be to adorn his face with a black eye, however, there are more worthy objects of our loathing. All of Shkreli's appalling antics and characteristics are in fact emblematic of the real villain: capitalism. Shkreli is capitalism embodied, and if you hate him, you’d do well to take up hating capitalism with at least equal fervor.
Gouging AIDS patients
It is near miraculous that we even know of Shkreli. The episode that first brought him mass attention, his decision to increase the cost of lifesaving drug Daraprim by 5,000% in a single stroke, was so mundane it might never have made headlines. Sudden manifold price hikes are a routine occurrence in the pharmaceutical industry—even among generic drugs.
More:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18896/martin-shkreli-capitalism-free-market-wu-tang-cultural-appropriation
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