#28. Mangione: The Killing Joke.

How the murder of a CEO exposed major cracks in society.

6:45 a.m. Manhattan, New York. Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare Group - a healthcare insurance behemoth - is on his way to the annual investors conference in midtown. Hiding in the shadows is Luigi Mangioni, a 26 year old Valedictorian from Maryland. A promising tech graduate who's fork in the road laid bare in front of him on that cold New York morning. He had two vastly different paths. One would undoubtedly lead him to Silicon Valley. The other will most likely be Rikers.

Mangione’s motive is yet to be confirmed but his journal entries and the nature of his target paint a straight-forward answer. An answer which seemed to resonate with a large majority of social media users. The brazen assasination of Thompson not only shocked the world, it exposed a widening fissure in society.

Inequality

Never in recent memory has economic equality been so glaringly visible than today. Despite record highs for stock markets, Main street is struggling. Inflation continues to push prices to the consumer limits. Unemployment is rising too. As is housing. Those that Abraham Maslow dubbed as basic fundemental needs - or physiological needs - are being stretched. Main street is having a tough time. At the same time, Wall Street is flying.

Let’s talk about United Healthcare Group. Prior to Thompson’s death, the stock was trading a record high. In fact it had returned a whopping 3,000% since the bottom of the Great Financial Crisis in 2009. A staggering return and frankly, a slap in the face of the average Joe who’s seen their healthcare costs increase month on month, year on year.

The absurdity of the healthcare system in the US is always a major talking point during election campaigns yet it’s telling that neither Democrats nor Republicans are willing to do anything about it. This is not surprising when you consider that lobbyists spend hundreds of millions every year.

Nevertheless, Thompson was CEO of UNH and had a fiduciary duty to shareholders which nobody can argue that he didn’t fulfill. And here we come to the crux of the matter.

Hippocratic Oath

Physicians are bound to take a hippocratic oath to uphold the highest of ethical standards. These standards provide the framework for physicians to operate safely within to ensure patients are looked after. Company executives however are not. Executives are bound to one thing and one thing only, share price. Healthcare in the US is a for profit organisation. It is a delicate system which requires the medical centres to return a profit, above all else.

When people’s needs are not being met or they are being forced into a corner they will react.

The Killing Joke

When United Healthcare Group announced the death of Thompson on their facebook page the comments section was flooded with laughin emojis and disparaging comments. The reaction was so obscene in fact that United closed it down. All over social media the reaction was of celebration. Mangione was a ‘hero’. Thompson the villain.

Let me re-write this. Mangione murdered Thompson in cold blood and the reaction was to celebrate the killer and disparage the victim. The people leaping to the defence of Thompson were executives themselves. By all accounts, the people that were upset by Thompson’s murder were people that could possible relate to him.

The people spoke. They approved the Killing Joke and just like the Joker, they understood the message. Just like the aztecs, they realised that the Gods do bleed and that Mangione was just as disgruntled as they were. The only difference is that Mangione was willing to do something about it. Only he knows what pushed him over the edge but rest assured executives will be looking at this case intently.

Gotham

The risk with something like this is that Mangione is being seen as a hero, and this can trigger copy cat attempts. As wealth inequality increases, people will only get more desperate. And just like Mangione was faced with a fork in a road, the billionaire executives do too. Their reaction will shape society for the next decade.

Executives can choose to listen. The reaction of the people, as absurd and in some cases vile as it was, is a genuine reaction. Something is causing people to feel like this and until that is addressed, do not expect it to change. So Executives can look to reduce that wealth gap and build their people up. Gross pays and bonuses can be reined or spread out to the company to distribute the wealth more meaningfully.

Alternatively Executives can choose, as some already are, to beef up their security. To distance themselves from the public. This of course will not only maintain the wealth imbalance but also create a physical barrier. While the citizens of Gotham struggle to survive, the Gods will hide on Olympus.

Conclusion

The murder of Thompson is a brutal reminder that actions do have consequences. Hiding behind corporate actions will not suffice anymore. UNH had the denial rates compare to its competitors. Meanwhile, healthcare debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy. Thompson was murdered by Mangione but the reality is, the system that Thompson lived within ended up biting him back. Thompson and his ilk have built a system that chews people up and spits them out. How many deaths are on Thompson’s hands?

Joking about Thompson’s death or condoning Mangione is not right. We live in a civil society with a rule of law that for the sake of all of us and our democracy, should always be applied. However, the elephant in the room must be addressed. Inequality breeds desperation. Desperation breeds violence. We live in sparky times. Times were Presidential candiates are targeted. Times of deep division, frustration, anger.

If executives aren’t careful, the Joker may well end up inspiring a circus. The power is in their hands and their actions will determine the consequences.