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anyway let's get to our first big story
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one of the biggest stories this week
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obviously Luigi mangion the 26-year old
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man charged with the murder of United
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Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson there's a
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lot of information out there about his
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online presence everyone's digging for
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Clues there's been stories about whether
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that means anything or not I think the
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best story I read was about him being
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kind of a typical Tech bro if if he
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hadn't shot this guy he would have
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seemed relatively normal in his
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interests what was your first reaction
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when you started hearing about this guy
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he stopped communicating with friends
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and family about 6 months ago and really
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went offline he was quite an active
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online person like a lot of people his
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age in his sector in the tech sector I
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think he was he worked for true car I
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think he was a video game a ficient auto
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um he did have health issue over the
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last years on Reddit he talked about
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this back problem he had and struggle
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with brain fog John Herman wrote in New
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York Magazine what's most striking about
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the manion's extensive online dossier is
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that had it been studied before the
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shooting took place it wouldn't have
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raised much alarm uh very difficult to
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characterize um
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what do you talk that about that first
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then we'll talk about the reaction from
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people well okay so first reaction is in
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my opinion and you know let me be
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arrogant I think the correct reaction is
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to feel um Sympathy for the family of
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this man who was murdered and then and
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then what I immediately registered was
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everybody decided that they would use
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this event to speculate on what happened
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to confirm their current beliefs so
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people immediately went to um this is
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Justified uh because this is an uprising
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or this is you know the most shocking
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thing about this isn't about the
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murderer I mean that's a tragedy because
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when you're a young High School
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Valedictorian with an engineering and
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computer science degree and master's
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degree respectively from an ivy league
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university and you're handsome and in
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great shape your Li and your life is
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over that's a tragedy as well but the
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reality is any speculation around what
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was going through his head you're just
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getting lost in the soup we have no
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idea we don't know if he had a
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schizophrenic break we don't know if he
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was a Ted kinsky like character who was
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a genius but came off the rail we don't
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know and you know what it it doesn't
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really matter in my opinion as much what
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matters or the most interesting thing
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here is how Society is responded and I I
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can tell you how someone feels about
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this based on with 70 or 80% accuracy
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based on one thing can you afford pretty
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easily health insurance because here's
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some data um 60 % of bankruptcies are
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related to medical debt and the largest
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source of bankruptcy is medical debt we
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pay $1,500 per person for
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pharmaceuticals versus $500 elsewhere
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despite the fact that we manufacture and
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distribute them we spend $133,000 a year
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on Healthcare despite the fact that
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everyone else pays 6,500 we have lower
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Health expectancies people people
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oftentimes compare Healthcare to how I
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would describe San Francisco expensive
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but bad in the US or Healthcare in the
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US
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and you have you have
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essentially again going back to the
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prison system when we have injected a
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for profit motive where the largest
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lobing groups in Washington aren't big
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Tech they aren't the defense industry
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they are the healthc care industry which
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spends three4 of a billion dollars what
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you end up with is despite the fact that
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70% of America supports price caps and
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Universal Health Care it doesn't happen
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yeah it's like gun it's like gun control
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because of the better known as
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our elected Representatives keep letting
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the pharmaceutical and the healthcare
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industrial complex maintain this
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mendacious fak duopoly of sugary shitty
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food from the food industrial complex
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that gets you obese and then hands you
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over to the diabetes industrial complex
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which has created regulatory capture and
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charges too much money to people to die
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slowly this is everyone is obsessed with
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this guy that's wrong everyone is angry
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at CEOs these CEOs of these companies
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are doing what they're supposed to do
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and the thought that they're all of a
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sudden going to reexamine their ethics
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what don't hold your breath folks the
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people who are at fault here are voters
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who have failed to find elected
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representatives who have a backbone and
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start thinking about the tragedy of the
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commons that is healthc care in this
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country yeah but what was interesting
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too is I think this reaction and I think
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this it's borne out from what you're
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saying um it's snowballed since the
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police captured him too this reaction to
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this young man this troubled very
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troubled young man uh people have been
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writing fanfiction Etsy is full of
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merchant merchandise there they call him
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Robin hoodie there's been Spotify uh
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playlists and crypto coins his lawyer
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told s and he's got in office from
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Members the public to pay the Le his
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legal fees um you know this is a just
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just such a a snapshot of where people
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are they just have sort of had it I
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don't know what else to say that and
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then laughing or making fun or
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being less than empathetic is to murder
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victim is
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really terrible but at the same time
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that that man doesn't does isn't a
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person anymore he's the insurance
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industry right that's what he represents
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right and perhaps he is in some ways so
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and just so you know major Insurance
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stocks including United Healthcare have
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fallen more than 6% since they're
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closing prices the day before the
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shooting there may be some Wall Street
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anticipation of moves there's there's
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some moves to United Healthcare for I
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don't know how got a hold of pharmacies
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they loan the money and then in a user
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Usery way and then took control of them
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there there's a bipartisan effort to not
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they should not be owning pharmacies
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they should not be owning hospitals they
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put people out of business um that's an
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astonishing thing I didn't know about um
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so talk about the jism like giving this
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guy a lot of attention and you know um
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making him in kind of as it said this
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folk hero who's not a folk hero um sort
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of an unfortunate folk hero and what's
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going to happen to the insurance
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industry well okay so in my opinion the
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Sol verse Engineers are the same place
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and that is when a nation gets to this
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point of income inequality you have a
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self-correction and that's the good news
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it income inequality always
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self-corrects the bad news is that the
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means or the vehicles of self-correction
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are War famine or Revolution and I would
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argue this is a form of Revolution I
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believe the me too movements and the
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black lives matters movements which both
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had righteous components of them but the
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thing all of these things have in common
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is the following they're going after the
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1% and ly what happens is people decide
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if if there are if the 1% is making more
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money than the bottom 99 at some point
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the bottom 999 figures out the best way
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to double their wealth is to either show
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up and kill these people tell them to
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move out of the country or to shame them
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this is what has happened in Central
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America and Nations all over the world
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throughout modern history and this is a
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form of Revolution when people decide
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when they see that insurance companies
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have a profit motive in denying claims
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when they see insurance companies and
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their shareholders consistently getting
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richer and they also know somebody whose
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wife got lung cancer which meant they
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were going to be bankrupt two years
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later they start to get enraged this is
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a form of revolution in the support for
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this person can I make a comparison
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though I'd love you because like look
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this happens with the shootings all the
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gun we everyone in America wants gun
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control except for a small loud it's
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minority rule the tyranny of minority
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rule right it's it's capture of our
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government by rich people and this is
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what happens in democracies without
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stronger institutions is rich people who
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don't see themselves as bad people and
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they usually are and say let's vote for
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people that will put in place
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regulations and put in place subsidies
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that we get richer and richer and richer
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and at some point people wake up and go
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you know what I've had it and they grab
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their torches and this is a form of that
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this is a form of Revolution and as long
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long as we have elected
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representatives that continue to soak
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the bottom 90 or the bottom 99 I mean do
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you realize how insane our Health Care
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system is right now it really is I I I
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just had I just I Scott knows this I
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when know part of being in San Francisco
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my doctors are all there and I had my
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annual everything and there are a few
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things that needed special tests and the
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struggle I had with the insurance
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company was insane and the doctors just
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shrug they're like we this is how you
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get a literally it was like I felt like
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it was in Russia like remember in the
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old days this is how you get around and
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get the meat for your table right I was
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like what in the world this makes no
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sense these are you know you know and
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I'm sure there's there's abuse of course
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and they're trying to protect against
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abuse and and people trying to trick
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them but most people are just there to
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get tests right like basic it was so
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frustrating I did not go out and kill
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someone let me give you some examples
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here a mother who's taken care of a
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child with childhood diabetes and let's
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be honest it's always a mom she spends
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five months of her year handling that
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child's health care and a lot of it is
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on the phone arguing with insurance
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companies who have a vested interest in
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making friction and difficulty in you
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getting your claims how does she feel
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about this shooting I'm not saying she's
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an evil person and I was on Anderson
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Cooper last night I've essentially
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become everyone's booty call when
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someone cancels they call me and say
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bring him on yeah and Anderson pointed
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out he said I know you canceled your
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health insurance seven years ago and I
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did why because health insurance 45
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cents on the dollar goes to profits and
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administration meaning for every dollar
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you give to health insurance you're
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going to get 55 cents in claims back and
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their job is to make sure it's 54 then
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53 and 52 and might they not make it
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more difficult for you or more reasons
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to cut your anesthesia early or decide
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you're outside of their coverage Zone
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whatever it might be and so what I
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decided was at $50,000 a year which was
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my insurance cuz I'm a narcissist I want
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the goldplated one so I went naked the
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last 7 years I have saved $350,000 in
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health insurance premiums which will buy
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a lot of health care but again this is
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the problem and I want to be very clear
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give me a second here because I don't
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want anyone to interpret this
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incorrectly I not suggesting that lower
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middle- inome people ever give up their
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health insurance but the reason I can do
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it is because I'm wealthy enough that I
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can absorb any health emergency so this
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is yet another transfer of wealth from
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lower and middle- income people who
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cannot take the risks I can take and I
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can opt out of this usurous ridiculously
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expensive regulatory capture
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infrastructure called the health
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insurance system we need to take
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Medicare it's at 65 now lower the age
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limit every year and essentially we need
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Universal healthare Medicare for all
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it's just like Medicare for all and do
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it slowly do it slowly do it over 40 do
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it over um 44 years until you get to 21
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and then maybe go all the way down to
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zero but something is wrong in Mudville
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we the the profit motive injected here
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with uh citizens united where people
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where democracy is no longer about
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people voting but about dollars voting
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has led to a Healthcare System where we
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are trading uh Despair and anguish for
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shareholder value and that's where we
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are in America is the tail that Wags
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every dog is shareholder value
