The Red Circle. Why did Luigi Mangione become a myth?

· On 4/12 Brian Thompson, CEO of the largest healthcare company in the United States, United Healthcare, was shot to death in New York. Thompson was in that city for a meeting of company shareholders, a meeting that continued after announcing the death of the CEO.

· If Thompson had not been CEO of a health company and his death had not generated celebrations on social networks, perhaps it would be a case of urban violence that perhaps the Police would investigate more or less. But none of that happened

A CEO killer mug and sticker

· Before the Police arrested Luigi Mangione (allegedly responsible for Thompson’s murder) in Altoona (Pennsylvania), the myth had already been born: Who was this young man that no one knew but who had killed someone who symbolized something as hated as corporations? of health of the United States?

· In a few hours, t-shirts, stickers and mugs appeared about the CEO killer and playlists inspired by his escape. Once his face was known there was no turning back: Luigi Mangione symbolized revenge against a cruel and unjust system.

· Why was there no sadness and indignation and, on the contrary, many people celebrated the death of the executive? A quick and perhaps too simple answer: because the entire country hates healthcare companies. Because unless you are part of the small millionaire elite in the United States, you, someone in your family or your friends had a problem with these companies.

· According to a 2023 study: Half of people of economically active age in the United States said it was very or somewhat difficult to afford their health expenses.

· Even having a prepaid plan, a third of adults have health debts and 85% owe $500 or more (between 500 and 600 thousand pesos in addition to paying the prepaid plan).

· Also during 2023, 2 in 5 adults delayed or avoided going to the doctor or buying a prescription because they couldn’t afford it (even if they had health coverage).

· To complete the picture, public health does not exist in the United States (only in certain cases do very poor people have basic access).

Killers by nature

· Hatred of health companies is so popular that there are series like Breaking Bad whose trigger shared with the public is the inability to pay for health treatments. That hatred also inspires (literally) episodes of another popular series like Law & Order, such as one in which a desperate father murders an executive because he denies medical coverage to his sick son.

· Companies are also hated for their methods: imposing hours of waiting on the phone and endless bureaucratic procedures, using any excuse to deny medical treatment and even speculating on death to reduce costs.

· At the scene they found three bullets with DENY, DELAY, DEPOSE written in indelible marker, closely related to the health industry in the United States.

· United Healthcare’s profits in 2023 exceeded 280 billion. Brian Thompson himself took home a bonus of 10 million 200 thousand dollars (in addition to his salary).

Social crimes, remedies and placebos

· This combination fueled a national debate: should we mourn the death of the CEO of such a company? Is it wrong to rejoice? Is murder legitimate?

· The first thing to say is that many people experienced this event as revenge for the constant humiliation on the part of companies and executives who are responsible for the suffering and death of many people.

· About this, something that Nathaniel Flakin from Left Voice says is interesting, when he rescues the idea of ​​“social crime” from Friedrich Engels, partner and friend of Karl Marx. Engels explains that when an individual kills another with premeditation it is a crime, it is clear that it is a murder. But when society exposes workers to premature death, “a death as violent as death from a bullet,” when it takes away their means to survive, we are facing a social crime. And he also says that it is very difficult to defend oneself against these crimes because in capitalist societies it is something that is naturalized and we do not see the murderer (he is made invisible).

· Thinking about it this way, thinking of executives as responsible for a social crime. Who would object to the reason and how? But another big question arises, if it represents a solution.

· And the truth is, not because Brian Thompson was one of many, perhaps thousands, CEO. And if they didn’t even cancel the meeting he was going to attend, probably almost nothing will change with his death.

· Companies are going to continue denying medical care, people are going to continue dying because they deny treatments or cannot buy their medications.

· To change that, many more things are needed: first of all, that the world is no longer organized so that some CEOs earn a lot and the majority have to work a thousand hours to buy a medicine. That the priorities be reversed and the objective be that all people have access to health but also that all these people live a dignified life. That would be the real remedy and not just a placebo.