Every day, hundreds of Americans die so that a handful of very rich individuals can become ever richer. The epidemic of mass shootings is rivaled only by the opioid crisis in the destructive impact on American life. The common denominator shared by these twin horsemen of the apocalypse is that both of these trends are the result of the efforts of just a few individuals. The sickening truth is that these people birthed this horror in an old fashioned effort to get very rich. Their stories are outlined in two fascinating reports:
“The Family That Built an Empire of Pain- The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts, by Patrick Radden Keefe, New Yorker October 30, 2017 Issue. Mr Keefe details the path by which oxycontin became widespread and the Sackler family became multi-billionaires writing
“According to Forbes, the Sacklers are now one of America’s richest families, with a collective net worth of thirteen billion dollars—more than the Rockefellers or the Mellons. The bulk of the Sacklers’ fortune has been accumulated only in recent decades, yet the source of their wealth is to most people as obscure as that of the robber barons. While the Sacklers are interviewed regularly on the subject of their generosity, they almost never speak publicly about the family business, Purdue Pharma—a privately held company, based in Stamford, Connecticut, that developed the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Upon its release, in 1995, OxyContin was hailed as a medical breakthrough, a long-lasting narcotic that could help patients suffering from moderate to severe pain. The drug became a blockbuster, and has reportedly generated some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue for Purdue.”
Traditionally medical professionals were reluctant to prescribe opiate derivatives because patients had suffered addiction or death from overuse.
“Purdue launched OxyContin with a marketing campaign that attempted to counter this attitude and change the prescribing habits of doctors. The company funded research and paid doctors to make the case that concerns about opioid addiction were overblown, and that OxyContin could safely treat an ever-wider range of maladies. Sales representatives marketed OxyContin as a product “to start with and to stay with.” Millions of patients found the drug to be a vital salve for excruciating pain. But many others grew so hooked on it that, between doses, they experienced debilitating withdrawal.
Since 1999, two hundred thousand Americans have died from overdoses related to OxyContin and other prescription opioids. Many addicts, finding prescription painkillers too expensive or too difficult to obtain, have turned to heroin. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four out of five people who try heroin today started with prescription painkillers. The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that a hundred and forty-five Americans now die every day from opioid overdoses.
Most people who’ve heard the Sackler family name are more likely to think of them as benefactors of the arts. Using philanthropy to white wash a dirty fortune does not excuse the fact that one family and their closely held pharmacutical company created a culture of addiction and death for thousands of Americans. (Thats more dead than American dead from World War i, the Korean and Vitnam wars combined.)
Big Gun’s Big Fail -A secretive Manhattan billionaire’s dreams of creating America’s foremost firearms empire, by Stephen Witt, New York Magazine November15, 2016, outlines how one private equity investor sought to consolidate gun manufacturing in America and supercharged the sales of so called “black guns.”
Stephen Feinberg founder of the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital, saw opportunity in the gun industry
“The industry was fragmented, consisting of numerous small, private manufacturers like Bushmaster scattered across the American Northeast. There had been Big Pharma, and Big Oil, but never Big Gun.
Cerberus set out to create it. A catalyst was the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, pushed by NRA lobbyists and passed by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2005. PLCAA granted gunmakers broad immunity from lawsuits from victims of gun violence. A year later, Cerberus bought Bushmaster for $76 million from Richard Dyke, the company’s founder.”
Feinberg saw the opportunity created by the NRA and Congressional Republicans and moved to seize that opportunity.
“Soon after the sale, Bushmaster was folded into Freedom Group, the holding company Cerberus had chartered to conquer the gun business. Its play was obvious: roll up small gun companies, centralize management while combining costs and cutting overhead, and then, when the moment was right, sell the conglomerate to the public via an IPO. After Bushmaster, Freedom purchased Marlin, a manufacturer of lever-action hunting rifles; Parker, a manufacturer of ornate, collectible shotguns; DPMS, another assault-rifle manufacturer; and the big one, Remington...”
In addition to consolidation and efficiency, Stephen Feinberg had the insight to manufacture guns that could be accessorized and he popularized guns that were designed accept a wide variety of add on parts. These guns, like the AR-15 were designed to look like the weapons of war, but the after market parts were (are) a big part of the profit.
“Freedom Group’s business strategy was to use America’s Special Forces as an R&D department for selling guns at Walmart. What worked in the battlefield worked in the forest. “Shooting a 180-pound deer is the same tech as shooting an 180-pound man,” said Brittingham, and Freedom was staffed with a number of people who’d done both.”
Try to think of the awful innovations that have changed guns from hunting rifles into “badass killing machines.” Extra capacity magazines, silencers, bump-stocks, and the like are all an extension of Stephen Feinberg’s innovation in the sales and marketing of guns as Pandora Bracelets. This collect ‘em all attitude lead Adam Lanza’s mother to buy the gun that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook.
According to Politifact, 280,024 Americans have been killed by gun violence in the last decade. Mr Feinberg’s ideas and products have played a prominent role in many of the worst of these deaths. It is telling that his private equity firm Cerberus Capital is named after the three headed hound who guards the gates of Hell.
Post Script: These are the people who will benefit most from the current tax plan. These are the people who control the Republican Party. To quote Fran Leibowitz, “there are no clean fortunes.” These super wealthy individuals should be taxed sufficiently to clean up the messes they created.