Bloody Anti-Capitalism

Beneath the horror of the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson lies a virulent anti-capitalism.  We look at our healthcare system, and the incredible value of capitalism.  

Transcript

Bloody Anti-Capitalism

December 2024

Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don't give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution.

Ben Shapiro

All of the other quotes.  

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. 

Keynes

Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction.

W. E. B. Du Bois

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Churchill 

On Wednesday, December 4, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Chief Executive Brian Thompson was 

murdered in an assassin-style hit outside of his hotel in New York City.  The killer was Luigi Mangione, a wealthy real estate family scion who attended Ivy University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's and master's degrees.  Though there were many condemnations of this violence, one set of reactions was startling beyond that of a deranged young man.  

Here is one example. Matt Ford, writing for the New Republic, in a reprehensible piece entitled "Why Many Americans Are Celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO's Murder." The assassination of Brian Thompson—and the reaction to it—suggests Americans are fed up and feel powerless, and thus, Ford explains away the murder. "As Americans have fewer and fewer lawful means to peacefully address social and economic issues or resolve disputes among themselves, targeted killings like this may only become more common." Wait what?  Because the teaching of history is at such a nadir, it does not occur to Ford or his ilk that there are far more ways to have a voice than in the past, certainly when communications were in the hands of a few broadcasting and newspaper giants.  I just posted an opinion on Twitter and received 250 views and 30 responses.  How is that possible in 1990 or any of the years beforehand?  

And this gem, "Thompson's death appears to stem from simmering public discontent over how the U.S. health insurance industry operates." Fourteen years ago, Barack Obama's ACA was supposed to make healthcare better. Instead, study after study notes how people are far more dissatisfied than before the passage of the law. According to Gallup, public approval of healthcare was 45% partly or very negative in 2008, a few years before the enactment of the ACA. By 2024, that number had risen 61%.  So, according to Ford's logic, does it make sense to declare open season on the ex-president?  How about Ezekiel Emmanual, the primary architect of the law? According to this odious, disgusting argument, I am not happy with how something turned out; in fact, I believe people died because of this something. Because I feel there are not enough ways to manage this, is it time to become a killer? 

The New York Times, never missing an opportunity to cater to its audience, posted an article entitled, "Some on Social Media See Suspect in C.E.O. Killing as a Folk Hero." The Times notes, "Mr. Thompson's killer have appeared muted. Instead, the executive's killing has released a tide of online frustration toward the health insurance industry, with some people even voicing their support for the gunman."

And then we had this from the academy. Anthony Zenkus, Professor at Columbia/Adelphi, TEDx speaker. Trauma expert. Anti-violence. Commie. I voted against genocide. Of course, the genocide to which he refers is not the one from the 1940s.  "Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down.... wait, I'm sorry - today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires." In Zenkus' twisted, disturbed mind, Thompson went up and shot all of those people.  

Yes, folks, parents fork over nearly $80,000 so their children can be taught by a self-proclaimed "commie" celebrating cold-blooded murder on the most spurious of arguments.  But you know, it's Columbia, so it looks so swell on a resume. 

To add some political inanity, we have the always ridiculous and damaging Elizabeth Warren, a living, breathing version of the fictional Dolores Umbrage from the Harry Potter novels. "Violence is never the answer," Warren said. But," she continued, "people can only be pushed so far." 

It would never occur to these people that Thompson was a husband and father to two children. His father worked in a grain elevator, and Thompson was an up-from-the-bootstraps figure.  On the other hand, Mangione could tour a Baltimore museum on a night dedicated to his family, who had contributed funding for the structure.  And maybe Thompson was instrumental in the reduction of claims? Or perhaps he was secretly part of a satanic cult that drowned puppies.  And none of this matters.  What is relevant is that whether it be by the laws of the United States of America or a moral foundation such as the Mosaic Code, we do not settle issues through murder.  Period. At the end of the comments, no "buts" follow that statement. Murder is both illegal and wrong.  

As Jonathan Swift noted, "You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into." But here are a few reasonable thoughts. I am a relatively healthy person, but I have two bad knees and a bad hip: two different orthopedists and several MRI techs.  I have allergies, so an allergist. I have a general practitioner, and a few years back, I confused a muscle spasm with a heart condition—so more doctors.  Now add in 45 million Americans over the age of 65. My 92-year-old father has, by my count, six full-time doctors for his needs.  Now count up a total of 340 million Americans, all with their very unique bodies.  

Though I am not a self-proclaimed healthcare expert, I spent the last 12 years of my business life in and around the system. I worked for medical device manufacturers, suppliers, and nursing organizations. My final stint was at the American Medical Association. I may not know the ins and outs as Thompson once did, but I know a number of statistics.  

The United States's healthcare spending is $4.5 trillion, or roughly 18% of all spending. We have one million doctors and four million nurses. In addition to these groups, we have another 17 million employed in the system. These include administrators, MRI techs, and the person who checks you into a facility.  

There is something called the continuum of care.  That starts with wellness and extends to doctors' offices, ambulatory and urgent care centers, home health, assisted living, and hospice.  And, of course, hospitals -7,300 of them ranging from small rural facilities to the 900-bed mammoth Parkland in Dallas.   Some hospitals are for profit, and others are not.  Some are standalone (though these are fading), and many are now in large groups such as HCA, Sutter, and Mercy. 

We also have medical device manufacturers like Medtronic and Stryker. Drug companies—have you heard of them? It is a trillion-dollar industry all by itself.    

And how was this paid for? Medicare and Medicaid are in several different forms.  And overall, we have United Healthcare, Anthem, and Kaiser Permanente. Are you getting the picture?  So the answer to all of this is to shoot an executive?  

Healthcare is the single most complex thing in the United States, but too many Americans want simple, and right now, we suck at simple.  Even Mangione knew as much, "Obviously, the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly, I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument." Of course, he then felt so entitled to go out and murder based on what? His self-confessed ignorance?  It appears with each new reveal that Mangione was probably insane.  So what is Ford, Warren, and the Times' excuse? 

Our "commie" Columbia professor notes he is an activist for climate change and the minimum wage.  There is nothing showing any knowledge of healthcare, but he feels comfortable speaking out about the system. 

Which leads to what we are learning in our schools.  Our professor Zenkus teaches that "capitalism causes mental illness for one." In a piece by Rainer Zitelmann in Forbes with a piece entitled, "Anti-Capitalism On U.S. University Campuses: 'The Culture War Is Fought Dirty,.'" In the piece, the author states, "At American universities, leftist and conservative students often clash—and pro-capitalist libertarians frequently get caught in the crossfire. The leftist domination on campuses has provoked in several countries and most visibly in the U.S. a populist conservative response." 

Some of these courses include Anti-Capitalist Studies 201: Race, Gender, and Primitive Accumulation.  Another from Williams College is Race, Land, and Settler (Racial) Capitalism: Ongoing Topics in (Dis)/(Re)possession.  As frequent listeners know and mentioned in my last podcast interview with Professor Wilfred Reilly, the ratio of liberal teachers to conservatives is on the order of 12-15 to 1.  So these types, of course, are not exactly shocking. What is new in the past 20 years, certainly the recession of 2008, is that the right is increasingly rejecting capitalistic policies for greater governmental control.  

According to author Robby Soave, the decisive factor is the economic situation many young people find themselves in after they finish university. Many fresh graduates find themselves confronted by high debts and poor career prospects. This is especially true for graduates of humanities, psychology, art, and similar subjects. As Soave explains, the economic situation these graduates face is similar to what it would have been if they had never attended university and had instead got a job immediately after leaving high school. In reality, they are often even poorer. In many cases, their situation is even worse than high school graduates because university graduates are burdened with high debt levels from their student loans. And this is not just liberal students.  

And some of these changes can be seen in K12 as well.  In a 2019 article in the Wall Street Journal called "California Wants to Teach Your Kids That Capitalism Is Racist," writer Williamson Evers notes,  

 "Begin with economics. Capitalism is described as a "form of power and oppression" alongside "patriarchy," "racism," "white supremacy," and "ableism." Capitalism and capitalists appear as villains several times in the document." 

A difference in high school curriculum from my time in the 80s and 90s to that of my kids has been the introduction of mandatory service hours.  Kids can work in everything from soup kitchens to resale shops to helping the elderly.  Both of my children opted for working with kids with Down Syndrome.  One of the activities was a weeklong experience at an overnight summer camp for children with developmental & intellectual disabilities, ages 7-19.  My kids were paired with a camper and expected to be responsible for them from the age of 13.  This activity was worthwhile and helped develop fundamental attributes such as patience, responsibility, and ingenuity.  

All of these activities are rightly celebrated, but the success of our society is not predicated on helping one another, producing service hours, or starting another non-profit to assist the underprivileged.  Instead, America's economic success is due to capitalism.  This is not taught in the schools today, nor was it emphasized in my time.  However, the pursuit of profit, and all aspects of that pursuit, from the competition, is the bedrock of America's success.  Yet one is celebrated as the highest ideal, and the other is grubby or, as noted above, even racist.   

The government is not a chicken and egg.  If you start a business, the goal is to have customers who will pay for your products or services. If you start a government, it does not work without the revenue necessary to build that government.  But you can have a large economy with a very small government footprint.  We did it for nearly 80 years before the Civil War.  You cannot have a larger government without a larger, robust tax-producing economy to support that.  And the economy's success is predicated not on making great things, having happy employees, or doing good for the world.  All of those are nice to have. Yet without profit, none of those things come to pass.  

The core of this nation was built in the late 1800s in one of the most ill-named periods called the Gilded Age.  Rather, it was an industrial age that set the foundation for the massive prosperity in the 20th century.  All of the incredible healthcare innovations we have, from pharma that has banished disease to the sterilization of where care is delivered, to medical devices that have extended our lifespans because they diagnose early diseases to freeing us from the pain of deteriorated knees and hips, emanated from profit.  No organization can afford innovation if some other offering is not sold for more than the cost of the first offering.  And it is those extra dollars that go into the research for the next incredible achievement.  

Humans are fallen creatures filled with envy, lust, and gluttony.  We are also filled with greed, and capitalism channels that greed into ways that benefit societies.  We lived a certain way for 12,000 years, and then, about 250 years ago, life for humanity began to change, creating infinite bounty.  It is not a coincidence that capitalism arose at the same time.  

I think it would be far more beneficial to our students and our nation if they spent about 50 hours getting a sense of the complexity of our healthcare industry and another half semester learning about the virtues of capitalism rather than toiling away in a second-hand shop, though I imagine we can do both.  

Arguably, the single greatest philanthropy ever was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, now just Gates, given the couple's divorce.  But the money was not produced by magic gnomes pooping golden ducats into Bill Gates's toilet.  The money came from capitalism. From Gate's Microsoft.  Like government and tax revenue, this is not Chicken and Egg.  Without Microsoft, there is no foundation.  Now, I believe much of what the foundation has accomplished is important.  However, more than any other company, Microsoft brought personal computing to the masses.  They have employed millions during their 50-year existence, delivering prosperity to millions of family members and hundreds of communities.  It spurred other companies to be more innovative. Gates even invested $5 billion in pre-iMac and pre-iPhone Apple computers.  In other words, without the foundation, Gates did society an incredible service.  I may be belittling the foundation, but I believe the world would be better if Gates had founded a second Microsoft rather than another foundation.  

Two lessons from all of this.  As bad as race relations can be in this nation, imagine if African Americans had tried to achieve their ends through violence as was advocated by figures like H Rap Brown and his 1960s Black Panthers.  We were fortunate that Booker T Washington, WEB Du Bois, Ida Wells, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr. ascribed peaceful methodologies to achieve equality of opportunity.  This is not to say these historical figures were pacifistic in their advocacies.  I just want to say that shooting one in the back was not their approach.  What would South Africa look like today without Mandela or India without Gandhi?   That I even need to make this argument is absurd but always necessary.  

However, we know what our nation would be like without capitalism.  We have millennia of evidence, both archeological and historical.  90% of us would be farmers tilling soil behind an oxen or some other beast of burden for 10 hours per day, six days per week. Hot sun or bitter cold, the fields would see our presence.  Horses would be the fastest transportation.  Our life spans would be around 50 years from birth.  And we would probably be ruled by a monarch.  A lot of us would die from famine.  But even more from disease.  Of the gifts from capitalism, perhaps health is the greatest of these.