Assho*le--what a word.
As one of the most dynamic curse words in the English language, it can describe anything from a body part to Donald Trump. The word's versatility knows no bounds.
It's the random passerby who smiles and waves, only for you to realize that the greeting wasn't meant for you.
It's that guy jogging in place at the crosswalk as if his shorts are only going to get shorter with each second he rests.
It's the guy who doesn't hold the door open for you, or even worse, the one who holds it open when you're a hundred feet away making it an inconvenience to the both of you.
But if I had to name one assh*le above the rest, one supreme dickhead to rule them all, it would be a man by the name of Martin Shkreli. Although he came from fairly humble beginnings, being parented by two working-class Croatian immigrants, this particular asshole has made a name for himself. Shkreli is a co-founder of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, co-founder and former CEO of Retrophin LLC, founder and former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli fell under some serious heat from the media after acquiring the rights to Daraprim, a medication used to treat people with severely weakened immune systems such as those who are HIV positive or AIDS patients. This assh*le had the gall to raise the price of the life-saving medicine from around less than $15 to $700. That is a 5,000 percent increase.
Not only did he basically put a tax on human lives, but he had no problem justifying his reasoning in front of the entire world. I mean, he had to turn a profit, right?
“The price per course of treatment to save your life was only $1,000 and we know these days, [with] modern pharmaceuticals, cancer drugs can cost $100,000 or more, rare-disease drugs can cost half a million dollars,” Shkreli said. So why not make the token affordable, life-saving drug just as expensive as the rest of them?
But don't lose faith in humanity quite yet.
According to The Guardian, "(Shkreli) has been arrested by the FBI and charged with “widespread fraudulent conduct”...Agents from the FBI arrested the 32-year-old hedge fund manager turned drug boss at his apartment in Manhattan on Thursday morning...Shkreli, who is now chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was charged with wire and securities fraud stemming from his time as manager of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and chief executive of biopharmaceutical company Retrophin."
If Shkreli is convicted on all counts, he will be facing up to 20 years in a federal penitentiary. In my opinion, that's 80 years too short. Shkreli fundamentally deprived patients the right to their treatment, all in the name of turning a fat profit. And now he's going to prison.
See ya in 20, assh*le.
