Martin Shkreli on Drug Price Hikes and Playing the World’s Villain - General

[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PCb9mnrU1g[/hd] i saw the martin shkreli thread in sh and figured i'd watch one or two things about him cause apparently he's not all bad another (probably better, longer) interview [hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTNOWSKMS10[/hd]

A greedy scumbag that does it with no shame and a stupid grin on his face is a greedy scumbag all the same

The theatrics of them interviewing over a game of chess is priceless. It's so cliche', but you know both Vice and Shkreli are loving it.

has nothing to do with personality, hes smart, and hes getting great and free PR

I still don't think shkreli is as bad as everyone makes him be. If all he did was within the legal rights then there have to be even bigger, greedier, and more scheming douchebags as him. Giving that problem a spotlight and making him the twat of the century is logical to follow. But the focus should be on the bigger issue at hand.

[QUOTE=Lazore;51132034]has nothing to do with personality, hes smart, and hes getting great and free PR[/QUOTE] How is he getting great PR? I can't see how this PR will benefit him.

In my opinion... media used him as a scapegoat, and as you know, there needs to be someone in the spotlight so others can sneak behind. I also think he might be on autism spectrum, he's awkward socially, or maybe he's just misunderstood.

The VICE video was posted back in January, just going to quote srobins because this post says it better than I could: [QUOTE=srobins;49639425]I wish we could just let this mongoloid go to prison and stop with the fanfare. There's no genius hiding behind his childlike face, there's no ulterior motive or poignant commentary on the state of our society.. It's just a complete douchebag who is reveling in the spotlight and somehow successfully turning his public perception from "complete piece of garbage" to "misunderstood businessman and thinker" in the minds of the gullible. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] It feels more like somebody who is a total dork trying to come across as cool and composed. He's clearly trying to push an image of a cool, relatable guy who is misunderstood, but he hasn't quite figured out how to use this strange new human body he's found himself in so he just comes off as autistic. Watching him bob his head and over-enthusiastically laugh "haha! FUCKING FBI" really drives it home. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] No, you can definitely blame him. You just don't want to because he's been personified. Before Shkreli's ugly mug was plastered across the internet for months on end, he was just part of the black box pharmaceutical industry that everyone universally agrees is basically evil. Now that he's become personified (Oh man, he likes Wu-Tang Clan too? He's not so bad after all!), people want to shift the blame so they don't have to admit that this bottomfeeder is actually not a good guy at all, even if he smiles and likes the same music you do. The incompetency of the law is not a free ticket to blameless violation of basic human sympathy and morality for the sake of profit. Why some people are so easily convinced by his bullshit is truly beyond me, I mean look at this: I don't know what kind of bizarro-world you live in, but yes, even if I lived in Somalia and there were no official laws in my country for whatever reason, I'd still be quite irked if somebody stole from me, or made inaccessible my life-saving medication. Why? Because it's fucking [I]wrong[/I]. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] How funny that so many people will claim that something being illegal doesn't make it immoral (i.e. smoking weed or something along those lines), yet as soon as a spoiled Albanian pharmaceutical executive gives an interview on VICE, the tables turn and you guys apparently think that as long as it's legal, it's moral. [editline]30th January 2016[/editline] Hey guys, wanna know why nothing he did is illegal? Because companies like his in the pharmaceutical industry lobby with billions of dollars in order to make sure their immoral practices stay legal! Anyone that thinks "you can't blame him, it's legal" is seriously dense, sorry. The pharmaceutical companies are not only taking advantage of the ineptitude of our country's laws, they are [I]creating[/I] those opportunities, fighting desperately and lobbying with the immense money and power that can only be achieved through these immoral business practices, in order to ensure they can continue doing whatever they want without repercussion. It's like if a thief paid somebody to break your locks, then robbed you and said "oh, well the door was open!".[/QUOTE]

isn't he investigated in like dozen of financial scandals now ... IRS / FEDs all over him ..

Think it's a bit nuts that we're vilifying Shkreli for this since he's not the first and the last, since it's mostly done behind closed doors and it's the system that allows for it that is wrong. Even if he's been a bit of a cunt.

[QUOTE=SwizzChees;51132036]I still don't think shkreli is as bad as everyone makes him be. If all he did was within the legal rights then there have to be even bigger, greedier, and more scheming douchebags as him. Giving that problem a spotlight and making him the twat of the century is logical to follow. But the focus should be on the bigger issue at hand.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Rossy167;51132427]Think it's a bit nuts that we're vilifying Shkreli for this since he's not the first and the last, since it's mostly done behind closed doors and it's the system that allows for it that is wrong. Even if he's been a bit of a cunt.[/QUOTE] By this logic no one should care that Donald Trump said he's smart for paying 0 income tax.

[QUOTE=Aztec;51132472]By this logic no one should care that Donald Trump said he's smart for paying 0 income tax.[/QUOTE] Well if Trump can get away with not paying tax then why wouldn't he? He's an arse, but the problem isn't Trump, it's fact that Trump can do that.

When Congress was trying to play the 'holier than thou' card he could've easily slapped them with the "Well, everything I did was within the law that you all established. By tomorrow you could all sign a national healthcare program into law but you don't." I'm more disgusted with our federal legislative than Shkreli because they allowed this system to happen in the first place.

[QUOTE=SwizzChees;51132036]I still don't think shkreli is as bad as everyone makes him be. If all he did was within the legal rights then there have to be even bigger, greedier, and more scheming douchebags as him. Giving that problem a spotlight and making him the twat of the century is logical to follow. But the focus should be on the bigger issue at hand.[/QUOTE] Which, the bigger issue is that is'nt this scumbag is getting away with it but a system in place that rewards s dipshits like this

He's being the bad guy and the people who get all riled up over him are just proving him right. He's done this for profit [I]and[/I] to shine some light on big pharma. He's got videos of him 'debating' with people who sound a lot like those in this forum. Get check em out.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;51138369]you guys should try and find someone who actually needs daraprim complaining about it, all i could find were people who were relieved to find that insurance covered it just fine or were given the medicine for the same price due to hospitals being supplied with it for cheap regardless its painfully obvious that shkreli was trying to scam insurance companies out of their money to possibly research the drug further and make it more of a permanent solution, whilst still giving the drug out for free or heavily reduced cost to people who dont have insurance hes a funny douche but not much more evil than the average business owner[/QUOTE] he's easy to hate because people who do things, for lack of a better term, "pro-cancer" is easily clickbaitable. plus, he has the world's most punchable face. but it's hard to get the real problems in the limelight because people will just see that punchable face, be reminded of what he did, react, then move on.

Seen both interviews and really don't get the hate. So long as what he is saying is true, that his company gives the drug out for free to those without insurance, and 65% of the people getting the drug are receiving it free, then where's the issue here? He is a businessman. If the system allows, if not encourages this behavior, then who exactly are we to judge him? If we have a problem with it, we should be trying to get congress to make legislative changes, not just bandwagon shitting on one individual, no matter how douchebaggy he comes off. I just love the ad hominem attacks from misinformed people, especially in this thread. I mean, just what are you trying to decide? Whether what he did was truly as wrong as it was painted, or just how much of a dork he is?

if all of shkreli's claims are accurate then i'd argue that what he's done is a net benefit for everyone his new and improved drugs will still be around whether the system he's exploiting goes away or not

I cant believe youre saying hes not all that bad for royally fucking over people who need this medicine I guess Hitler wasn't so bad I mean he did provide us with the Volkswagen and autobahns and child support. It's about looking past the bad, right? I know it's a stupid stretch to go Godwin but for fuck's sake him exploiting the system is NOT OKAY, and neither do I think Congress should be safe from the blame for allowing this assfuck to continue this shit. There is no 3d-chess playing misunderstood socially awkward genius. Just a snake out for money.

yall are falling for shkreli's act. He genuinely believes he's a good person, which is why it's such a good act. He's just a sociopath, like all of the other financial elites.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;51144375]if he is truthful in saying that he wishes to make a better medicine and needs money to research it, how is he an asshole?[/QUOTE] There are better ways to get money to research a new drug than hiking the prices and financially ruining people in the process. That does include the insurance company. I do not always agree with these companies but hiking the prices to 'stick it to them' just so they have to pay even more to acquire it to distribute among the patients, what's up with that? This is a ridiculous situation all around [editline]3rd October 2016[/editline] However I would really like anyone to try and defend that Wu-Tang Clan album debacle, which is kind of unrelated but not really at the same time If he really cared about that medicine and wanted to invest in researching it, even for just 3k people in the US, he'd find better ways, and price hiking is not included That just makes it a case of justifying the means to the goal

If anything this whole situation only proves how many people on facepunch will actually just make up the details as they go along and not actually read what anyone has said. Typing up a pagestretch of paragraphs about how martin shkreli is an asshole cause he deprived people of daraprim is useless if you missed the fact that he never did that lmfao. It's not even necessary to try and spin it like thah cause it can be argued hes an asshole for other reasons which dont ignore fact.