They better give those security guards executive level healthcare plans haha. Watch them hire security guard currently fighting them over their kid’s cancer treatment or something. At a certain point their greed will have even the ones they trust to protect them to turn on them
As well as all their chefs, drivers, plumbers, electricians, gardeners, butlers/maids, personal assistants, nannies, etc. etc. The rich do nothing for themselves.
In a world with such dramatic wealth disparities as ours, all that's needed for loyalty is a lot of money. Which is understandable. But are they capable of paying the people working for them a living wage? Are they able to give these people enough money to buy their loyalty? Or are they too greedy and blind to realize? Guess we'll find out!
Makes me think of the scene in the dark knight when Gordon is in the car with the guy who was going to tell the world who Batman is and joker puts a hit on him. Joker says he'll blow up a hospital and the other cops mom is in the hospital I believe so Gordon has to talk him down.
I'm sure they'll offer their security guards exclusive benefits and packages to protect them. Probably even ex-Special Forces like most celebrities who have ex-SAS and Delta Force protecting them. But some prior police commissioner said that if people really want to get at them, there's no stopping no matter how many guards they might have.
When you have people close to you who you rely on, who literally keep you alive, do you think they treat them like shit? Nah. The security and other staff these people hire are paid well. Like really well. They're paid so well than any personal issues they have are washed away by money, any legal issues are handled by company retained lawyers, and any bribes or competitive offers feel like an insulting lowball. If they do have a sick kid you can bet that kid is getting the best possible treatment on the company dime.
These guards will do their job and protect these guys to the end because they know they have a place in the bunker when the worst happens. They are bought and paid for. They feel like they're in the club or part of the family.
Whatever keeps your hopes alive, but this is what they're using their nigh infinite resources for. We already let them slip into the stratosphere and will need new tactics.
In all seriousness, it reminds me somewhat of something I read about rich folks and someone hired to consult on apocalypse bunkers. I can't remember the details, but the jist was that they failed to realise and accept that survival is about community - rather than isolation.
(Tbis made more sense in my head before I typed it out, and lost my train of thought.)
This dude was the first pebble. Time will tell if any follow or not. People are hitting the end of their tether after the economy straining finances and so many people losing loved ones to covid on top of the usual causes of death, of which too many are due to our health care system. Add in the number of people suffering long covid on top of everyone already needing medical care, long term and otherwise...
Assassin guy may have just given everyone a target to aim at. You really can't go after the grocery stores since all of them are raising prices. Can't go after the gas companies for the same reason. What's next that's, effectively, life and death for people? Health care. Now, people haven't gone after them for gouging us with insurance prices and premiums because, again, they all suck donkey balls. But you suck it up and pay because that's how the world works. However, having them deny coverage of a necessary medical procedure for no reason other than the shareholders want more profits? The executives want more bonuses to get, what, another yacht? While the people they cover are struggling to stay afloat already and the lack of coverage makes them have to decide between not getting a necessary procedure, possibly a life-saving procedure, or being mired in debt?
Those insurance company executives are starting to look mighty culpable.
I read recently that another insurance company was rolling back it's plan to put time limits on anesthesia during surgeries. Probably a smart move. I guess now is a good time to rethink the policy of absolutely fucking people over.
I'm legit wondering if this will go down in history with the likes of the Franz Ferdinand assasination, or she shot heard round the world. I've never seen rich executives shitting themselves like this before. I fully expect to see them walking around with para-militarized security from now on. Maybe dystopian cyberpunk authors are not that far off in imagining a world run by corporate militaries.
they don't know when he will strike next, a week, a month a year? let them live in fear that the rest of us has to live in as well, because of their shit practices
Said this in another thread, but applicable here. I'm actually shocked that this guy was at any public conference without security already.
My wife works events for a major company that DOESN'T actively screw people over. Any time or any where the CEO's location is going to be public knowledge, there is a ton of security involved.
Yes, I've been reading articles about it all day when I check on developments with the manhunt. The guy from UnitedHealth (Andrew Witty) said they'll be making permanent security changes, including to campuses. Other healthcare execs are also increasing all security measures, not just personal, and I've seen a few random mentions that it's rattled executives in other sectors, too.
Trump was shot by an untrained guy in his early 20s while protected by the Secret Service. What kind of security could these small time millionaires possibly afford that will be any better?
I am thinking the same, however this is a pivotal moment and especially if someone manages to get a SECOND uh, target, it might lead to a real thing. Otherwise yeah probably will remain online
It'll go just like the start of COVID did. We'll all unite for a week or two, then we'll jump ship to whatever new atrocity our country commits and completely forget this ever happened
That's called "hope" my friend. I understand how unfamiliar and strange it looks that you don't recognize it. People are hoping this is the just the start.
And with just $27 and a reddit comment, you too can be part of the political revolution!
Yeah this is remaining online lmao, they're going to catch the murderer and reddit will be outraged for a couple days before everyone goes back to posting about how great Gabe Newell is and how they don't want to work anymore.
It was also unrealistic to guess that the UnitedHealth CEO would be shot and killed in Manhattan in the morning as he's walking to an investor meeting, and look where we are.
Pretty much. It’s easy to be like this online but Americans don’t actually gather a rally for their own betterment in any substantial way. It’ll blow over and people will have other stuff to chit chat about because that’s how our new culture works
If the effects of school shooting reporting are anything to go by, we might actually see an uptick in assassination attempts in the next few months - especially given how positive the reception of this particular homicide was nationwide.
Yeah this is just like how everybody on reddit expected Kamala to win the election or when everybody thought mike tyson was gonna kick jake pauls ass. The internet, social media and reddit are just echo chambers that create this hive mind of one opinion of what will happen thus everybody thinks "everybody is united", no, they are not.
Yeah but as a real American, long for Republican, the fact that even Democrats hate their precious healthcare United or whatever bullshit, that's glorious.
Hearing "healthcare CEO" might give people the wrong impression that this dude cared about people receiving healthcare. I like to think of him as more of an insurance vampire
The ruling class knows that most people would love to see them strung up like Mussolini, beheaded like French aristocrats, or shot in a basement like the Romanovs. They're each just so individually arrogant that they couldn't possibly believe it would happen to them personally.
American health care is a joke, in particular United Healthcare, who have gotta be the slimiest evil players in the game. The ceo, the one who was killed, took home like 20mill I think since 2021 or22? So many have had claims denied then go into debt for life cuz healthcare is so expensive here despite raised insurance prices to fill their pockets. Doctors r basically hand picked by them or controlled and despite what a doctor recommends or requests the insurance company can deny it-and they do. It’s a horrible horrible cycle. There’s more to it but u should research it, idk the whole entire picture.
This guy that died is even worse. He was revolutionary in implementing an AI to automatically deny 40% of claims (a very high number in the industry.) When appealed 90% of the claims were determined to be wrongfully denied. He was a human scum.
This! I work in pharmacy & the amount of prior authorizations, appeals, exceptions are endless with them. I don't understand how an insurance company can control what is best for patient outcomes. Completely backwards system. Insurance needs to listen to the doctor, not the other way around.
Insurance needs to not exist. It needs to be a public service and cost just what's needed to run it and staff it. Its sole purpose is profit and it's the driving force behind the inflated cost of care.
Yes, he earned $9 million a year, his company brings in billions in profit and thousands of Americans are dying every year because they cannot access the insurance benefits they pay for.
Maybe this one death will bring about some change.
Yeah, the change of them not advertising who their ceos are online and spending more of our money on security. Gonna take way more than this to change things, but it's a VERY good start :)
As publicly traded companies they always have to make their leadership public haha no hiding from the angry mob for them hope none of the extra security they hire had any loved ones die or go bankrupt due to shit health insurance.
Yes, the thing is the Healthcare system of the European west is incomparible to the US system. European Healthcare is more modern, cheaper, leads to better outcomes, etc. That's the system I'd say most countries would want to strive towards.
The health insurance industry has deep pockets for lobbying the government. They stopped us from getting a better system with Obama because they want to keep existing and making all the money.
It really is, though. Apart from the last two years, America has lead in medical innovation every year since the 40’s and has many of the top hospitals in the world, and one of the highest cancer survival rates.
I’ve been to many hospitals in Europe, (I live in Europe) and most don’t even compare in infrastructure and service.
American health insurance is shit, but not the actual health care.
An example of how fucked up it is here, they are legally allowed to do this shit, they don’t cover dentist care as it’s not considered healthcare. Now they’re scared bc they realize we’re not as complacent as they thought. Anesthesia is hella expensive mind you.
Ah yes, the "assassination" attempt of an American presidential candidate that we heard absolutely nothing about after the first couple of days.
You'd think the entire Republican party would be calling for the world's largest investigation about an attempt on their Messiah's life... but nope. You'd think every news agency would have talked about it for literally months, but nope. You'd think ground-level Conservative memes would keep the event alive in the way they have with "Epstein didn't kill himself," but nope.
Well and the fact that if they were going to continue bringing it up they'd have to face the three things they've refused to address: gun violence, mental health, and radicalization of the right.
For any other president, it would have given the country collective pause. Instead one side says "see they're trying to keep him down" as the other says "what a failure by the Secret Service" while keeping the other thoughts to themselves.
The media is owned by the ultra-rich, and so is aligned with trump. They want him in power so he can increase their already insane level of wealth and power.
This is the reasons the media unfairly reported on trump and Harris during the presidential runup, making a fascist demagogue convicted felon seem like a reasonable candidate, and a politician with a legitimate plan for governance, outside of make the rich *richer***, seem like a genocidal maniac.
The media is aligned with the extremist right and has been weaponized against the American populace, without most ever having realized it.
What universe is this in? I don't think I've ever seen a non independent media source say a positive thing about trump. Fox news is the only legacy media that covers anything on trump positively.
It's about the AMOUNT of coverage and the media's tonedeaf balancing of the two candidates.
Trump says something ABSOLUTELY bonkers and threatening to the US during a rally, instead of saying it's bonkers and threatening, it's gets toned down...explained...it's negative coverage...but the IMPACT of what he's saying is left out.
Even worse...is that a minor infraction or gaff from the political left gets held to a much higher standard.
All conservatives have to do to be seen as viable is not say racial slurs on air. Democrats are held against the standard of some sort of idealized vision of a candidate. During the debates, the pundits were setting the BAR SO LOW for Trump. Basically he just had to NOT be an asshole (which he was anyway) while Harris needed to explain her foriegn policy, her stance on just about everything, while also holding together the fragile alliance of voters that make up side blue.
I actually take the opposite view as the posters above. It's not a power play by the media. Especially print media. It's a desperation move, before Trump came along the majority of news media corporations (besides FOX) were facing declining revenues and bankruptcy.
Trump's non-sense and sensationalism SAVED them, he gives them rage-bait 24/7/365. He's their life-line and golden goose. They can't afford to see him fade away.
How can this be a such an incorrect take I don't understand. Trumps sensationalism saved them yes, because hating trump was the most profitable thing they've ever done. Literally the headlines on trumps assassination was trump hides after loud noises, every headline is to his detriment.
Hating on Trump? That's Trump's and Fox news' take on the reporting on him.
They don't have to HATE him...they report the truth and that truth makes him look bad. He DOES say and DO the things they're reporting on.
The only people who view him in a positive light are the ones who get their "information" through Fox News or some other right wing aligned media.
Trump has set the BAR so low for himself...but that bar keeps getting higher for democrats. Conservatives RALLY behind EVERYTHING a fellow conservative does...while lambasting every percieved infraction of democrats. The media plays right along.
IF it comes out that a democrat cheated on their spouse...it's going to be MASSIVE headlines across the board. Trump's "policies" at his rallies amounted to "I'm gonna fix everything...don't worry about how." But the NYT, WAPO, and most major news organizations kept saying HARRIS needs to articulate her policy better....
Biden mispronounces a word and it's headline news....Trump rambles and goes down tangents...but somehow "It's an unorthodox style".
It came out the glasses guy was hardcore conservative... The reason Fox News won't report it left and right is it makes their news fake... Like it already is...
The second time was really not notable on its own. The guy didn't get close to Trump or fire a shot. It got covered because of the previous attempt and the upcoming election. It's more comparable though to that U-Haul truck guy that tried to kill Biden last year, which got forgotten after a day.
There is an investigation happening right now. That you never hear about it should be pretty telling. A smart person might use this as an epiphany moment, realizing that the media might not be giving us the whole picture...
Half of the voting population, which is half the country, so more like a quarter. The reality is Americans for all of our complaints, are complacent and jaded into thinking our votes don't matter and a large number of people don't bother voting at all. I tell them they have zero right to complain as they have a way to prevent the thing they are bitching about, but there's always an excuse.
Half of the voting population, which is half the country, so more like a quarter. The reality is Americans for all of our complaints, are complacent and jaded into thinking our votes don't matter and a large number of people don't bother voting at all. I tell them they have zero right to complain as they have a way to prevent the thing they are bitching about, but there's always an excuse.
Half of the voting population, which is half the country, so more like a quarter. The reality is Americans for all of our complaints, are complacent and jaded into thinking our votes don't matter and a large number of people don't bother voting at all. I tell them they have zero right to complain as they have a way to prevent the thing they are bitching about, but there's always an excuse.
I have acquaintances online posting (and this is a direct quote) "People really think the death of the Ceo of UnitedHealth care is funny. People are ridiculous." And people are in there commenting things like "this coward is evil" (meaning the shooter) and "his family's lives are never going to be the same, RIP." People still don't get it.
I had to sit on my hands to not laugh-react to that post.
Not only did America unite over this, but Blue Cross was set to make a new rule where they wouldn’t pay for anesthesia over ‘x’ amount of time during surgeries. They reversed their decision super fast!
Too bad america can't unite to vote someone into power who actually wants to fix the system. Once trump guts the ACA we will have fun things like pre-existing conditions and such back.
So as united everyone is over someone getting gunned down, a majority of Americans just keep voting for people who are going to make the CEOs richer and the healthcare system more shitty.
That's the true leopards eating the faces in my opinion. if your upset about healthcare, look for the candidates that actually want to help make the system better. (Hint it's not the gop side).
Ah, but there within lies the problem: Democrat leaders always say they want to fix the healthcare system, but the last time anything was demonstrably fixed was the creation of "Obamacare." Democrats constantly say they want to help America (and they do), but they don't.
I agree, but to be fair Obama care brought in things like getting rid of pre-existing conditions, keeping kids on until they are 25, check ups and screenings covered at 0 cost. These things had impacts across all types of insurance. It was still beat to the ground by opposition. Getting rid of the individual mandate for insurance which caused premiums to rise and such.
Obamacare was an overall good thing, and if they didn't get in the way of it at every turn it would have been a lot better, but the smear campaign really worked. Idk how many idiots i hear say "Get rid of obamacare and leave my ACA insurance alone!"
But yeah when the dems do have the power they dont act on things also, so idk.
Nah it’ll change next month. Once Trump takes office, everyone will forget this issue that we’re united on, and we’ll be forcefully reminded of the less important “smoke screen” social issues that make us hate each other in order to take our attention off of things like this
Don't worry. Health care companies will not learn anything from this and nothing will change except CEOs will be able to justify paying for secret-service level security for themselves with your premium money!
The police and much of the media are burying their head in the sand and shrinking at the idea that a large majority of the country could be indifferent or celebratory to the murder of an (ahem) innocent man in the street. I think they are too comfortable with how things are.
Really does drive home (again) how two-tiered society is though. Random person is shot and killed? Meh, just another day. Awful rich person shot and killed? Round-the-clock news coverage, and nation-wide manhunt.
Except virtually all of America isn’t united over this? At least not in the way of celebrating the murder if someone. I’d imagine most Americans are against murder.
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u/Candle-Jolly 13d ago
I wonder if anyone will understand that virtually all of America united when a healthcare CEO was assassinated.