Summary
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in a premeditated attack outside the New York Hilton Midtown before speaking at an investor conference.
The gunman, still at large, fired multiple times, leaving shell casings marked with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”
Authorities suggest Thompson was targeted but remain unclear on the motive. His wife confirmed prior threats against him.
Analysts speculate a possible vendetta tied to his company. The case raises questions about executive security, as Thompson lacked personal protection despite known risks.
That’s not at all what I said or what I know of the situation. You are making assumptions based on your existing feelings without knowing anything of the matter. The person I know worked his ass off more than any person I’ve ever met.
In the industry I’ve worked in, I’ve had the opportunity to rub shoulders with celebrities, athletes, CEOs, etc. They have all been honest hard working people. Every one of them (over a hundred) had some philanthropic enterprises helping children, the sick, the homeless, animals, etc. Honestly, the wealthy people I’ve met in my life are the most incredible humans I’ve ever met. I guess that’s what upsets me. I wish you could all meet one or two of them and see how you come away feeling that these people are the best hope we have at a kinder world.
Even the nicest most hardworking billionaires you’ve met still never stopped exploiting people. A person can’t make a billion dollars through hard work and ingenuity. You only get that rich by extracting value from the labor of others or inheriting the riches gained through such. They passed the point where they gained little to no benefit from figuring out how they could keep getting bigger numbers and rather than distribute the gains downward and they kept going. They paid money managers to maximize their returns and wash away any concerns about how those investments got so profitable. They paid bosses to hire people at the
lowestmost efficient wage they could and then fire them when it’s more efficient. They may even be contributing some of that ill-gotten wealth to philanthropic enterprises. Not enough to impact their life, naturally, but some. The best will even promise to give it all away. Not now of course, when they die. Until then, they deserve it all and get to decide which ills are sexy enough to be worth contributions.And when you meet them at a mixer or a promo event or wherever it is you do, they’ll be happy friendly people. Because why wouldn’t they be? They’re sitting on a dragon’s hoard of wealth extracted from the work of others, with every freedom and luxury, and a fawning entourage and friendly media ready to continually say how nice and special they are.
How could you possibly say that?
It’s a matter of economics. You buy a thing. You invest in it. It generates value. You sell it for more than you put into it.
At no point does this require “exploiting” anyone.
Your argument just seems like, without any evidence, you think business owners aren’t increasing people’s salaries as the company’s value increases.
Here’s the story of Sponge Daddy. Small company of about 130 people worth about a billion dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Daddy
Let’s say it costs me a dollar (including payroll) to make a thing and I sell it for two dollars. In the first week of sales, I run out of stock. I now need to reduce demand to keep up with manufacturing so I increase the price to four dollars. I increase production which includes more factories and salaries which increases the costs to two dollars. I now increase the retail price to five dollars. Within a three years, I’ve sold 500 million things. I’ve generated $2.5 billion in revenue. My overhead is $1 billion, profit is $1.5 billion. How am I exploiting anyone? By not choosing to increase people’s salaries? What If my economic plan is to cover costs in case of a pandemic? What if I plan to create more products and need the extra revenue to invest in the new business opportunity? I need to buy more warehouses and employ more people as my business grows.
I can assure you, you have a fictitious image of what a billionaire is. I certainly don’t know them all, but there aren’t many and I know more than a few.
It’s true! Value just springs forth into this world from the ether. It’s basically alchemy. No other more rational expiation for it.
What if I need my peasants to each give me a bit more grain this season because the plague killed half of them? What if I also need to feed my knights so I can conquer new territories? Why should those lousy peasants have a say in any of that?
I assume a wheel that turns will eventually end up on the other side. Because that’s what wheels do. Just like billionaires. If they were so kind they wouldnt be billionaires. “Oh he gives money to children” and who fucking died and made him king of who gets saved? Who gave him authority to decide who deserves his help and who doesn’t?
Everyone protects their own. That’s the problem. He could instead give that money to his workers like they deserve but he pockets it and dishes it out on personal feelings and vibes. He is a monster. They all are. Like a wheel turns.
It’s just incredible how few people know how money and business works.
And there’s the major difference. You say “that’s how business and money works” and I say “then it’s immoral and anyone who upholds it is a monster”. Just because that’s how it works doesnt make it right. Nor does it make it justified to participate in it to the degree that you become the oppressor.
You seem like the kinda guy who’d be onboard with monarchy or even fascism if you were born into it. Real go with the flow kinda guy. Like a slug.
Tell me how the basic economic principles of any business ever are immoral.
Hey instead of sitting here arguing with a layman about it, how would you like a book about it?
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
And crazy enough, it’s free!
I own the book. Thanks.
You seem like the kinda guy to own the art of war. Instead of going in with “this is my enemy and I would like to understand my enemy” you go in as a human with a soul and such.
Accurate.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I argue on Lemmy on company time.
Workers produce the thing. They market the thing, they transport the thing and they sell the thing. And then the boss scrapes off the top of that whole process. That’s immoral. The boss should make the money he works for. Not that his money works for via investing. Because money don’t work. The very nature of hiring someone, making them work and paying them less than the value of that work is exploitative and immoral. Anyone who does so is a scumbag.
Isn’t it the boss who hires the people who hire the people and tell the people how the company should operate? Your argument is that it’s immoral to be a business owner?
What companies are paying people less than the value of the work they’re doing? Is it your opinion that every company is doing this? What is it that you know about these companies and the value of these workers to come to this conclusion?
It sounds a lot like you don’t understand how owning company works. The owner gets a paycheck like everyone else. The profit generated by the company, if any, goes in the bank. This money is used to hire more workers, invest in new opportunities, or saved for a variety of reasons.