Kev's Book Rants

Unpacking the Wealth Divide in Modern Society | Agronomics by by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth

• Kevin Williams

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The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson revealed some deep-rooted frustrations within the healthcare system. Today, I'll episode unpack the implications of the incident and I'll show how systemic injustices have fueled anger and advocating for collaborative efforts to reform an industry that many perceive as broken.

• Examination of the Brian Thompson assassination and its broader societal implications 
• Discussion on Luigi Mangione’s background and manifesto against the healthcare system 
• Analysis of moral outrage versus tribal anger in the context of the incident 
• Insights from "Angrynomics" on understanding economic anger 
• The importance of addressing systematic failures within healthcare 
• Exploring class struggle narratives in a politically polarized landscape 
• The potential for solidarity in advocating for meaningful change 
• Strategies to overcome divisive rhetoric and prioritize collective action 
• Reflections on how societal anger can lead to constructive outcomes

Speaker 1:

so the assassination of brian thompson, the ceo of united healthcare, is I don't know man, it's a. It's a wild story, right? We're talking about the ceo of a company in an industry that almost everybody hates, mainly because of their reputation for prioritizing profits over the health of its customers. And this dude isn't the CEO of just any health insurance company, right, but of United Healthcare, one of the more hated companies in that particular industry, right, mainly because of their high claim denial rates, which is something I think like 30 to 32%, that's been reported, right? So this guy gets gunned down while he's on his way to his yearly investors meeting, and the guy who pulls the trigger is this 26 year old dude named Luigi Mangione. And what's crazy about, homeboy, is that he's not just some you know down on his luck guy or someone you'd expect to do something like this. He actually comes from a pretty wealthy family. Now, of course, mangione wrote a whole manifesto, because if you're going to do something as crazy as this, obviously you're going to need a manifesto like that's. That's the mo of people who does things like this, and in that manifesto, he pretty much blamed insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare for exploiting people and making billions off of their suffering and the thing is right, a lot of people agree with them. In fact, so many people agree with them that it sparked this huge support for the suspected killer we have to say suspected and alleged and all of that because you know he hasn't been found guilty, so alleged murderer.

Speaker 1:

Now, obviously, not everybody was, you know, in the streets celebrating. A lot of people were, you know, horrified by this guy's actions, but a lot of people were like, you know, hey, what do you expect, right, when you have an insurance company, when you have an industry as a whole treating its people like this, like what do you expect than, you know, everybody kind of celebrating the death of somebody who represents that system? Right, it's almost like they're just celebrating this as some kind of dark justice. To be honest, it's a little bit unsettling, but I think it's also telling because I think it really reveals how desperate and angry and pissed off people are right now. Now, if we're being honest, like, it's not hard to see that, you know, something like this was going to happen. This reckoning was really a long time coming. But it's not just a reckoning for the healthcare industry. I think it's a reckoning for the whole economic system that runs this country. People, man, they're carrying around a lot of anger, and I think this situation might just be the spark that could lead to something bigger down the road.

Speaker 1:

Now, just as this story hit the news cycle, I just finished reading this book called Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blythe, and if you haven't read it yet, go ahead and check it out. It's a really good book. Add it to your to read list. Like I think there's a lot of things that you can learn from that book in understanding, kind of, how we got to this point.

Speaker 1:

And one of the things that it talked about in this book is the two types of anger. Right, so you've got moral anger, or moral outrage, which comes from this feeling of you know, feeling wronged or like something unfair has happened or is happening to you. And then you've got tribal outrage, which is the typical, you know, us versus them that we happen to be used to here in America. All right, and I've talked about it a couple of times in my previous videos. Right now, america is drowning in both Right, but when it comes to tribal anger specifically, I think we've taken a turn right, or at least in this particular moment in American history. It is turned sharply from one type of tribal anger to something else, and we'll get into that here in a little bit later in the video.

Speaker 1:

Now, before we get into that, let's talk about angronomics. The book, right, angrenomics is about the systems and structures that are all driving this anger from the economic standpoint or from an economic standpoint, whether it's economic policies that keep the rich getting richer or the growing mistrust that people have right now with institutions. The book kind of talks about all of that and it it really does paint this grim picture of why so many people feel powerless and betrayed and and just kind of pissed off. Overall, right, but the thing that makes this book so good is how it connects all the dots in a way that just kind of makes sense. Another thing that it does pretty well, thing that it does pretty well, is that it gives a lot of solutions on how to possibly solve some of these issues that we're having. Right, it talks about things like a national wealth fund, which is, you know, basically public investment that is designed to create this shared prosperity. It also talks about things, or it talks about ideas, like data dividends, which are, you know, a situation where regular people can actually make money off of their personal data. You know the data that these companies are using anyway. They're kind of taking in kind of weird nefarious ways. Now I'll admit, some of these ideas are really cool sounding and they're really ambitious and it would really be nice to see some of these things kind of implemented. But I think it's rooted in the belief that if we think differently and push for change, like we can really build something better.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you start talking about fixing the wealth gap, health insurance has to be at the top of that list, right, because for millions of Americans, it's not just about the fear of not getting coverage when you need it. It's about navigating the maze of rising premiums and denied claims and and really financial ruin that comes with not having insurance when you need it. It really is a system that that doesn't just like fail but it actively creates harm, right, and that's what makes this this Brian Thompson case such an interesting story or such a flashpoint Right, his death isn't just about him or the company or anything like that. It's about a bigger system that so many people are just frustrated with because they feel like it's broken beyond repair. Right, and this kind of a frustration kind of ties directly into the moral anger or the moral outrage that the book talks about.

Speaker 1:

So, according to the book, moral outrage is this anger that people feel when something is so just kind of blatantly unfair that it's impossible to ignore. And what makes moral outrage so complicated is that it has two sides, right, on one hand it could be something powerful that could spark movements for change, for greater good. Right, or for the greater good, you know, think civil rights or, you know, labor reforms or stuff like that, right. But the thing is, if it isn't directed, it could fester and it could turn into resentment or even violence. Right, and that's why Lonergan and Blythe kind of make this argument that anger needs to be constructive. Right, it needs to have a constructive outlet and that's how you're going to address real injustice. Right.

Speaker 1:

But if we don't do it that way, if we don't, you know, do it in a constructive way, we'll end up with tragedies or kind of complicated situations, like you know, this Brian Thompson case, where the CEO gets, you know, murdered. And again I mentioned it earlier like the outrage behind this case isn't really surprising. Right, americans have watched the health care system fail for decades. Right, insurance companies are making all of this money while, you know, the patients are going bankrupt, Right, their claims are getting denied and the families and their families and their loved ones are passing away because they can't afford treatment, treatment that they paid into by having insurance in the first place.

Speaker 1:

So when someone like Mangione comes along and he carries out justice quote, unquote justice in such a violent and kind of horrifying way, they don't just shock us, right, they really kind of hit a nerve. It really kind of resonates, because we all kind of feel that anger Like, not all of us obviously is going to go to that level of murdering somebody, but the anger is something that we resonate with because in some way we feel crushed by the system. So understanding moral outrage isn't just about, you know, one act of violence. It's about recognizing the system that fueled this kind of anger in the first place. So tribal anger is kind of a whole different animal, right? It's that primal us versus them kind of vibe. This kind of anger feeds on the need to defend your own group, whether it's your political party or your social class or even a belief system, right, anything that is against you and your beliefs or your team. They're considered an outsider and you don't want nothing to do with them, and that feeling is kind of tied to our need for belonging and solidarity. But in today's society, that need for solidarity and belonging has been hijacked by social media, by partisan media outlets and by political leaders who kind of use that to their advantage for their personal gain, and they turned it into this weapon that's constantly pushing the idea that we and us are being attacked by them.

Speaker 1:

According to the authors, this kind of anger gets really really dangerous, really really fast. Right, it turns complex issues into zero-sum games where if one side wins, the other has to lose. There's no middle ground, there's no room for nuance or anything like that. So, when you look at the reactions to this guy's murder, right, tribal anger was everywhere. Right. To this guy's murder, right, tribal anger was everywhere, right, because on one side you had people calling the assassination this terrible thing and you know there's no place for it at all, which I mean, obviously there's some truth in that. But on the other side, you have some folks who saw it as like dark justice, right, an inevitable reaction to systemic injustice, right. Some, of course, like we talked about, went as far as celebrating it, right, and that's the thing about tribal anger. Right, it reduces everything into this oversimplified narrative that has to fit neatly into your group's worldview, and it stops us from actually understanding the bigger picture.

Speaker 1:

The book argues that if we're going to deal with this, we need to create spaces where actual dialogue and compromise can happen, spaces where we see people as individuals and not just someone who is a part of the opposing tribe. And when it comes to health care, this means dropping the partisan blame game and focusing on kind of creating reforms that work for everyone, not just for one side or one group. Now, the thing that the thing that's super fascinating to me, that caught my attention, is that we didn't stay stuck in this left versus right kind of nonsense. Right, we just got out of this election where we had been the most polarized or divided, I think, since the civil rights move right. One minute we're bickering about. You know Donald Trump and you know how it sucks that he's going to be president, and you know Kamala Harris and all of this stuff. Right, we're at each other's throats.

Speaker 1:

And then suddenly this situation happens and now it's not about political sides anymore, it's not about left or right or Democrats or Republicans. All of a sudden it just kind of shifts into this ruling class versus everyone else. Right, and you see that in the reactions to these political influencers who tried to play that usual divisive card. Right, take Ben Shapiro, for example. Right, he tried to, you know, frame these, the reactions to this, as you know the evil revolutionary left and you know all of this stuff. But that take kind of flopped hardcore. Right, nobody was buying it. That take kind of flopped hardcore right, nobody was buying it.

Speaker 1:

And I think that's because people like that, or people like Ben who make that argument, completely ignore the deeper frustrations that the middle and lower classes are feeling right now. Right, this isn't about partisan politics, it's about people being tired of the wealthy getting over on everybody else. Politics, it's about people being tired of the wealthy getting over on everybody else. And I think this solidarity, or this potential solidarity, can really be a game changer. Right, there are a lot of people who are really excited about what this moment represents or what this could be. It's a recognition that things are not working for the majority of people, that the economic system and the social systems that we have been sold are not working like it's supposed to work, and a lot of people are upset about that, and I'm one of them.

Speaker 1:

Right, I've been saying forever that this fight that we're in right now, this division, isn't really black or white or left or right. It's more of a class struggle. Right, it's the elites versus everyone else. It's the elites living however they want at the expense of everybody else. And it's always been my thing, right, the thing I like about capitalism and I'll say this and I'll get back Right the thing I like about capitalism is that you can be rich if you work hard, if you have, you know, you create a product or you create a service or you have a skill that you can make money off of. I've never had a problem with people being rich. Right, the problem that I have, and that I will always have, is people getting rich at the expense of other people. People getting rich and then all of a sudden living by a different set of rules that everybody else has to live by. So that's always been my frustration with that, and I think a lot of people kind of agree with that, and I think a lot of people kind of agree with that.

Speaker 1:

I think we've hit an interesting fragile point in American history where this solidarity can really actually achieve something right and really can start producing some change and some fruit. Because now we're in a position where we're starting to see what people are doing, or what these certain elites or certain famous influences are doing to keep us separated, and it's like the power that we can now have when we come together, left and right or whatever, and fix the problems that we all have problems with it's. It's really cool to see that we can actually change that Now. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, though. Right, this kind of thing, this kind of solidarity, doesn't just happen overnight. Or the changes that solidarity can create doesn't just happen overnight.

Speaker 1:

Right, it takes work. It takes staying focused on the big issues and not letting it get hijacked by petty grudges or partisan drama, or you know what the media tries to do to separate you know people. Again and again it goes back to this case. This case might go down as more than just a tragedy, depending on how you own tribes and we stick to our so important, because right now we're going to see this movement come back to try to separate us again, to get us to go back to our political corners. But I think we really have to work hard to fight against that because, again, we have the potential right now to really change a lot of things.

Speaker 1:

Yes, there are issues that we need to talk about, that we need to, you know, take care of different social issues that are going to kind of pull us apart, but we can handle those issues later. But if nobody is getting paid, if nobody is making money, if everybody is one bad, you know, health accident or health incident away from being bankrupt, like that's a problem. So I think if we can pick those issues that everybody is having an issue with and we focus on that and we get that squash, then we could go back and say, ok, well, let's talk about these social issues that we all seem to be not on the same page with Right. It's all about prioritizing our grievances and for me, if you ask me, I know a lot of people won't agree, but for me the economic issue is at the top of that priority list of grievances and once we can knock that out, then we could start figuring out all the other things under it.

Speaker 1:

Now let's go back to tribal anger, just for a quick second right. The danger in tribal anger is that if we fall back into our own tribes and stick to our own familiar bubbles, I think we lose sight of the bigger picture. Right, we stop questioning, we stop challenging and we start falling back into that groupthink mindset. Right, we stop questioning, we stop challenging and we start falling back into that groupthink mindset. Right, just mindlessly writing for our own sides, or our own political sides talking points, and when that happens, we start sacrificing our own beliefs and our own values just to stay loyal to the group that we belong to.

Speaker 1:

We stop asking ourselves do I actually believe this or am I just going along with this? Because everybody that I hang out with is going along with this. And this is where we have to take a step back and really ask questions like are your beliefs, the things you believe, are they really yours? Do they really come from you thinking about this stuff and trying to figure out if these are things that you really believe? Because if we're not careful, we end up fighting battles that aren't even our own right. So check this video out right here. Right, this is where I break down how our upbringing and our environments and our social circles kind of shape our worldviews a lot of times without us even realizing it. Anyway, that's all I got for today. Thanks for listening to my rant. We'll catch you next time.