You knew it was coming. After a meteoric rise, Martin Shkreli, riding the comet of his own vanity, finally crashed into a solid core of reality, leaving behind a trail of the enraged. His crime was in fact not a crime under the current system: he raised the price of the drug, Duraprim, which is used in the treatment of toxoplasmosis, from $13,50 a pill to $750 a pill. It is an essential drug for HIV patients infected with the toxoplasmosis organism.
Oh, he was so arrogant. Although of humble origin--he was raised in a Brooklyn apartment by his immigrant working-class family--or perhaps because he was of humble origin and had become, beating the odds, a Master of the Universe--he was quite sure that he was categorically different from the rest of us.
He thought he could boast like Trump, be smug as Cruz, and be as over-the-top as Carson, and get away with it. Yet unlike these, he didn't have the support of millions of furious whites. He imagined he could soar on his own gas forever. He was wrong.
When asked whether he had any regrets regarding the 5,000% increase, he responded like a badass teen: his only regret was that he didn't raise it higher. His primary responsibility under the capitalist system, he opined, was to shareholders.
An example of his hubris is his maximum-allowed contribution to the campaign of Bernie Sanders. Shkreli knew, of course , that Sanders is opposed to just about everything Shkreli stands for. Had Sanders accepted the donation, Shkreli, now convinced that any politician would respond like a dog to his golden whistle, would--is it possible? become even vainer. (There are, no doubt, a good many dogs who would.)
And then there is his two million dollar purchase of the Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, of which only one copy exists. (I love the Clan's response when they discovered it might have been bought by dirty money: they intend, they claim, to give a "significant portion" to charity.)
The little meteor crashed. It had to. It threatened to illuminate the activities of the Big Ones who still bask in the sun.
2.
"They gotta investigate this guy before they investigate us. Regulation is just another word for class warfare."
"By the way, I really appreciate your generous donation. I know who to call. Don't worry."
Shkreli's crime was his loud mouth. He was only doing what other executives, who behave, in public at least, like well-bred, innocuous gentlemen and ladies. I doubt if he would have been investigated so quickly if he had appeared to be virtuous.
The difference between what Shkreli did and many executives still do differs only in degree. Big Pharma has been ripping off the American public for a long time. Examples: When Part D, a program that supplies medications to the elderly, the government was forbidden to negotiate any price reduction; they continue to advertise brand names when cheaper generics are available; they often cease producing a drug that is no longer profitable and offer one that is a little different except for an enormous price increase; they delay the licensing of much cheaper generic drugs; they pay millions of dollars to doctors to tout their products, etc. etc. And it's not only Big Pharma. The ripping off of the American public by Wall Street, where huge bonuses are given to executives whether they have damaged the economy or not, is outrageous.
It turns out that Shkreli was much more reckless than most hedge fund managers. He apparently was involved in that classic version of fraud, a Ponzi scheme. Most hedge fund managers realize such fraud runs the danger of being discovered. They prefer to be dishonest in "honest" ways. The Shkrelis and the Madoffs are the exceptions; it is much safer--and more remunerative in the long run--to play by the rules that are fixed in your favor, rather than to flout them in order to flaunt amazing triumphs as an alpha male. That's exactly what the profitably discrete members of the elite do.
3.
I agree with Republicans: the government should be small as possible. The problem is, however, human nature When greed is excessive, the commonweal demands that the harm it does be limited. If you want a smaller government, behave.
In our country, where inequality is a major problem, perhaps the major problem, regulation of capitalism is as necessary as tea is to a homesick Brit. The public must be kept ignorant and diverted. The rantings of a flashy Jack O Lantern might eventually shed light on phantoms who continue to trick us. Exposure threatens their power; unlike Trump, unlike Shkreli, they prefer to hide and rule. "Regulation" is a word as frightening to them as sunlight is to vampires.Those ghouls aren't fools.
Established greed, the greed of the 1%, does not like publicity. They would much prefer to own the network that broadcasts Entertainment Tonight, rather than appear on it. That loud-mouthed nouveau-très-très-riche had to go. For if the American public really understood what is going on, and finally decided to really do something about it, who knows what would happen? May we all live long enough to find out.
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