Corporate Greed Unleashed: The Silent Violence Shaping Power Dynamics

For many years, consumer advocacy groups have been raising alarms about the “quiet assault” that results in widespread fatalities due to unchecked corporate greed, willful negligence, or apathy. These groups point to statistical data and case studies that are often overlooked by the media and receive minimal attention from lawmakers.

Corporate executives typically dismiss these concerns with the help of their legal teams and PR specialists. These issues might make headlines briefly, but they quickly fade away when corporations remain silent or issue non-committal apologies while promising ambiguous enhancements to their products and operations.

Despite these reassurances, the death toll continues to climb each year, and the tragic incidents persist. For instance, a 2016 study by physicians at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that approximately 5,000 people die each week in U.S. hospitals due to “preventable issues.” This alarming statistic is just one of many highlighting problems like hospital-acquired infections, excessive antibiotic use, medical errors, inappropriate medication prescriptions, “accidents,” and the effects of insufficient staff and training.

Shockingly, there is no significant initiative from government or corporate leaders to tackle this horrifying loss of life, which totals at least 250,000 fatalities annually.

Behind these numbers are real individuals—family members, friends, and colleagues—who are left devastated, outraged, or hopeless due to these preventable tragedies. Some of them are well aware of the specific causes and have sought corrections and compensation, but their efforts have often been in vain.

“Beneath the surface, there’s a boiling mix of resentment, anger, frustration, and bitterness toward corporate misconduct.”

Additional preventable deaths result from the widespread denial of insurance coverage for sick or injured patients by profit-driven, insufficiently regulated health insurance companies that prioritize CEO bonuses. Increasingly, these companies employ AI technologies to exhaust and frustrate consumers.

About two thousand Americans die each week because they lack health insurance that would cover timely diagnosis and treatments. Patterns of benefit denials by health insurers also contribute to fatalities and injuries. These companies use algorithms to automatically refuse necessary procedures without reviewing a patient’s medical records or consulting their doctor.

Insurance policies are laden with complex deductibles, co-pays, waivers, and exclusions that frustrate both doctors and patients. Meanwhile, insurance premiums are collected in advance, often with misleading promises of coverage.

In recent weeks, a flood of TV advertisements from major insurers like Aetna, Cigna, and Humana has inundated consumers. These ads, targeting elderly beneficiaries with Medicare Advantage plans, offer various “freebies” that disguise the companies’ true intentions as marketers rather than benefactors. These plans typically feature higher rates of benefit denial compared to traditional Medicare, restrict patients to limited networks of healthcare providers, and require extensive pre-approval for treatments, leading to excessive paperwork for doctors, enormous profits for insurers, and subpar care for patients.

An investigative report by NBC on October 31, 2023, titled “‘Deny, deny, deny’: By rejecting claims, Medicare Advantage plans threaten rural hospitals and patients,” highlighted another harmful effect of these programs on America’s rural healthcare facilities.

These corporations are so well-established that they largely ignore negative publicity. They manipulate the system to limit the freedoms of both patients and healthcare workers. Each year, the healthcare sector commits about $360 billion in billing fraud and abuses, with minimal legal consequences (https://scholar.harvard.edu/msparrow/license-to-steal). Political indifference prevails as legislators continue to collect campaign donations without addressing the severe implications of medical industry greed on ordinary people and taxpayers.

Below the facade of corporate operations lies deep-seated resentment, especially pronounced in impoverished regions or workplaces plagued by pollution and exposure to cancer-causing toxins, leading to severe health issues.

Corporate leaders, far removed from the consequences of their policies, enjoy lives of luxury and excessive compensation. The public remains largely unaware of the identities of CEOs at major companies like ExxonMobil, Aetna, and Bank of America. These corporate figures preside over systems that are impersonal, increasingly automated, and governed by oppressive AI algorithms.

This week, in a dramatic turn of events, a man targeted and shot Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, outside a bustling hotel in midtown Manhattan. The assailant escaped on an electric bike, leaving behind bullet casings inscribed with the words “deny,” “delay,” and “depose.”

As news of the shooting spread across social media, it provoked a flood of mostly angry or grim reactions. The New York Times noted some of these comments:

“As an ER nurse, the denials I’ve witnessed for dying patients make me sick. I find it hard to sympathize considering the suffering of these patients and their families,” one comment read.

“Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” one user quipped under a CNN video. “Sadly, my condolences are out of network.”

Despite some accounts that Mr. Thompson was one of the few executives advocating for cultural change within his company, the entrenched corporate culture, driven by relentless profit motives, proves difficult to alter.

The reaction on social media included remarks like this one on TikTok: “I pay $1,300 a month for health insurance with an $8,000 deductible. When I finally met the deductible, they denied my claims. Meanwhile, he was earning a million dollars a month.”

The New York Times reported a “heart-wrenching outpouring from patients and relatives sharing stories of stalled or denied insurance claims.” As more people respond, the outrage continues to escalate, likely amplifying as the media covers these reactions further.

One has to wonder how the political landscape might have shifted if this incident had occurred just months before the November elections. Could it have disrupted the carefully managed campaign of Harris, orchestrated by Democratic consultants with corporate ties, who ignore the warnings and proposals of figures like Senator Bernie Sanders?