“Violence is never the answer.”
That’s usually the first few words out of most people’s mouths when asked how they felt about 50 year-old Brian Thompson—the UnitedHealthcare CEO—being killed.
With that, one more word usually follows: “but…”
Violence is never the answer… but he was in charge of a company that has let people die from denying their health insurance claims.
The murder of Thompson has brought upon the age-old discussion of what, if any, circumstances can justify violence.
Personally, I am not one to justify violence in most cases, if any. With that being said, I think this is bigger than choosing which actions require reasoning. This is an action that is fueled by the experience of both class struggle and the outrage that bleeds from it.
For centuries, it has been customary for those in power to take advantage of those below them; primarily because power equals money. This is because no one can possibly acquire the amount of money that leads to substantial power without partaking in unethical practices—the most common being exploitation.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “from 1978–2022, top CEO compensation shot up 1,209.2% compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.” They also go on to describe how in 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times more than the “typical worker,” while in 2022, it was recorded that CEOs made 344 times more than the “typical worker.”
Now let’s be honest, these “typical workers” that are described are the people who are actually doing the work. In no universe will a CEO ever be working 344 times harder than their “typical worker.” Especially when these workers are often living paycheck to paycheck, that pay disparity can’t be justified.
I know what you’re thinking, but no, we’re not talking about people who own a five bedroom, white picket fenced house in Southern California—or even people who own two of those, for that matter!
“To illustrate just how distorted CEO pay increases have gotten: In 2021, CEOs made nearly eight times as much as the top 0.1% of wage earners in the U.S.,” the Economic Policy Institute describes. We’re not talking about the rich— we’re talking about the wealthy.
We must now consider how much more complex being the CEO of a healthcare company actually is. When you break it down, these insurers are profiting off of health issues. This is seen through increased prices on medication, the restriction of coverage for various healthcare services, and many more unethical practices. So it should come as no surprise that after 26 year-old Luigi Mangione shot and killed Thompson, Mangione was met with more praise than Thompson was with sympathy.
What did come as a surprise was the fact that this wasn’t a politically motivated reaction. Mangione was the one who gathered support because his actions demonstrated an issue that the collective has experienced. With our country undergoing some of the most severe political polarization that it ever has, class struggle is the one thing we can all relate to; more specifically, the rage that is so often attributed to that struggle.
In no way am I saying that violence is an ensured path to justice, but this kind of violence does demonstrate a breaking point— a symbol of economic frustration from unavoidable systems that millions of Americans have faced.
The issue at hand is that these unavoidable systems are interconnected in ways that can only benefit the people at the top, and we will continue seeing this until a revolution takes place.
As the iconic socialist figure, Che Guevara, once said, “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.”