The Situation

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was assassinated. Some pictures of the killer were released. Gun casings found at the scene had the words “deny”, “defend”, and “depose” written on them. UnitedHealthcare is evil. Large parts of The Internet are celebrating the murder of Brian Thompson, either with memes or with tales about the evil of managed healthcare and insurance companies.

Regarding Managed Healthcare and Insurance Companies

I am not going to defend health or life insurance. It’s one of the great evils. Indefensible.

They make profit by denying care to people that need it. It’s a middleman system that makes healthcare more expensive without adding benefits to either the patients or the caregivers. It’s an industry worth many billions of dollars that preys on people when they’re at their most vulnerable. It causes unnecessary death and suffering.

I have worked for a company as a software developer, writing tools for managed healthcare. I have worked for a company, writing software for life insurance. These were dark times for me. I am not a fan of managed health care, health insurance, or life insurance. Anything I say after this section is not in defense of that industry.

Brian Thompson was Probably Just a Guy

Unlike some other rich and terrible CEOs, I never heard of Brian Thompson before he was murdered. I know that UnitedHealthcare is evil, but I don’t know how much of that is because of Brian Thompson specifically. Did he make some pivotal decisions to turn the industry into what it is today? Maybe, but I doubt it.

He was probably just a guy.

Please be patient with me while I try to explain.

I have talked about my faith in humanity and how it has been damaged lately. The election is part of it. Reality television is another.

If you watch enough Survivor, or pretty much any other reality TV show where regular people are put into a situation where there is a cash prize at the end, these regular people will do terrible things to each other for the prize. The money is worth more than the humanity.

Let’s use our imaginations and test our morality.

Imagine you’re in one of these game shows. In your first challenge, you’re brought to a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, there are some people, safe and dry for now, but the tide is coming and they may not be safe in a few hours. At the top of the cliff, there is a bag of money. You have the choice: take the bag of money, or let down a little bit of rope. You cannot do both. There are other contestants given the same choice. Some of you will need to let down the rope to save the people at the bottom. Do you take the cash, or let down the rope?

You don’t know the people at the bottom of the cliff. You’re never going to meet these people. How much cash needs to be in the bag for you to take it and jeopardize the lives below?

Take the money, or help a stranger. How much is a stranger’s life worth to you?

The Money is the Problem

The right thing to do is let down the rope. We can know this because if the choices were do nothing or let down some rope, it is easier to see people choosing to help a stranger. When it costs nothing to do the right thing, most people will do it.

The reality is that there are people hoarding all the wealth at the expense of workers, and we want justice. Musk paid people to vote for Trump. Amazon has not made the world a better place, and Bezos won’t pay his workers a fair wage. CEO wages, on average, have grown beyond reason, while the workers underneath are struggling. Where is the justice?

Someone stepped out of the shadows, shot, and killed a CEO that was in charge of one of the evil corporations. I understand why people want to celebrate, but I think murdering people is the wrong answer because really, Brian Thompson isn’t much different than any of the people that chose money over helping people. He was just a guy like so many people around us that would make the wrong choice if put in the same position.

What is the Answer, Then?

If you want to get back at the people hoarding all the money, make their money worthless. Do not accept it.

If someone like Brian Thompson tries to come to your restaurant and buy your food, don’t seat them.

If Jeff Bezos offers to buy your book, don’t sell it to him.

If Elon Musk wants to buy fuel from you for one of his portable flame throwers, deny him the service.

Is what I am suggesting practical? No. But it’s the right answer. Money is the problem, so take money out of the equation.

To do it, you have to be willing to let down the rope instead of taking the bag of cash. You have to value human life more than money.

And the only reason this plan won’t work is because the person next to you will take the villain’s money, because the money is still more valuable to them than any principled stand. The person next to you, your coworker, maybe your friend, has the same principles as Brian Thompson. If someone were to assassinate your coworker, would you celebrate the same way people have celebrated the murder of Brian Thompson?

I rest my case.