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Why do you say this? That's an incredibly bold claim.
by cobookman 8y ago
Why do you say this? That's an incredibly bold claim.
- perfmode 8y agoHave you been under a rock? Do you know he’s in jail?
- teh_klev 8y agoI think you should start with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli
- 1000units 8y agoYou're like everyone else who hates Shkreli. You don't know anything about him. Someone asks you to conjure up a concrete criticism of the guy, and you just link to his Wikipedia page like you're being clever. Shkreli is an excellent man who's suffered a great deal of abuse and disparagement, and it's tremendously disappointing to continue to see comments like this in a venue that's supposed to know better.
- adamwong246 8y agoHe gouged the sick for profit. Is that concrete enough?
- Kaveren 8y agoFrom what I understand he only raised prices that insurance companies would pay. He offered the drug for free to anyone without insurance who couldn't afford it. So, not exactly.
- magnamerc 8y agoAlso, that money from insurance companies would go to the development of better and safer drugs. People just tend to skim the surface of a news story and form their opinions based on public consensus, which is that Shkreli is an evil person. Of course in reality, he's a distraction.
- jfk13 8y agoAnd if someone (unnecessarily, I presume - I doubt the drug had been a loss-maker while it was selling at a lower price) dramatically raises the price of a drug to insurance companies, where do you suppose the insurance companies will look to find the extra money?
- Kaveren 8y agoIn the case of Daraprim? Nowhere. It's not a drug many people need. Shrkreli himself has talked about this. It simply wouldn't be able to make a dent because of this, and it didn't. If I'm recalling correctly, and I might not be, Shkreli is agnostic about the larger policy issue at hand, he simply made a choice for his own business that had little to no negative real impact.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- MechanicalTwerk 8y agoOne of the shittiest human beings on the face of the earth? Really? There are people alive today who have committed mass genocide. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they are probably shittier human beings than Martin Shkreli. So no, not concrete enough.
- adamwong246 8y agoDude, you are absolutely sick in the head. This isn't a race to the bottom and "being the worst person in history" isn't a qualifier for criminality or unethical behavior.
- icebraining 8y agoPersonal attacks break the HN guidelines.
- MechanicalTwerk 8y agoI said nothing of his criminality or ethics. I just said he's not one of the shittiest human beings on the face of the earth. I mean you could kind of argue that OP thinks it's a race to the bottom, not me.
- dang 8y agoPersonal attacks will get you banned here. Please don't post like this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- onetimemanytime 8y ago>>He gouged the sick for profit. Is that concrete enough? Who in that (for profit) business doesn't???? Excluding Mother Teresa like foundations... Why do you think out health care bill is so freaking high? Because of compassion from pharma CEOs?
- 1000units 8y agoKUKU bro, he [provided a cure] to [people with life-threatening illness] for PROFIT? Is this Hacker News?
- teh_klev 8y ago> Shkreli is an excellent man who's suffered a great deal Unsure if trolling.
- munk-a 8y agoHe has acted in a way that is pretty clearly against societal ethics (if we can ignore the uber libretarian capitalists which I still consider to be a fringe group). He deprived other living beings of their right to a healthy life to marginally improve his own standing while paying down a debt he fraudulently accrued for his own self-interest. There's an interesting thing in societal norms, they shift over time. So if you were aware of his actions fully (and I didn't cover all the details here) and do feel like it's a bold claim I'd be curious to know (if you'd share it) which generational group you're in and where abouts in the country you are. There has lately, in American culture, been this glorification of white collar bad-boys and I find it deeply disturbing myself due to the immense volume of harm they end up bringing to undeserving people without the means to deflect it.
- busterarm 8y ago> He deprived other living beings of their right to a healthy life If you do even the slightest bit of (primary source) research into this, you will find that this is not true. You're mistaking what he is for something else. He's not a white-collar bad boy, he's a troll.
- munk-a 8y agoI disagree strongly with that, raising the price of a drug beyond the point of being able to sustain production of it is an ethical minefield, you are disqualifying some patients access to the drug by doing so and you're increasing the burden on patients that can afford the increased price. In our modern world we're pretty happy to excuse moves like this as "market effects" and ignore the real cost of them but there absolutely is a real cost in terms of the quality of lives other human beings are able to lead.
- laHiesh1 8y agoFrom what I understand only the patients insurance would have to carry the extra costs, those who were unable to pay up were given it for free.
- happytoexplain 8y agoI think this is at least a little dishonest, since I have a hard time believing you are unaware of, if not the details of, at least the existence of his legal and moral controversies and his antagonistic personality. It's not a "bold claim" - it's a very common claim rooted in understandable human reactions. Whether or not it is justified in all contexts is a legitimate question that should be discussed.
- cobookman 8y agoI don't think his actions are as malicious as the media portrayed. But that's not why I added my comment. The reason I say it's a bold claim is that I don't think he even makes the list of worst people on the earth. There's literally people Committing genocide. I would never put Mr. Skrelli in the same category as a murderer.