Who Is Martin Shkreli: Hero Or Villain?

Power can be defined as the authority or control given to a person. Because it is such an intense force, it can heavily influence one’s behavior and tends to corrupt or demoralize. Power leading to corruption can be shown by character Brutus in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Brutus is given the opportunity to do what he believes is right and this power gets to his head. Power however can not simply change an individual but rather intensify who they already are.

Power corrupts sometimes. It corrupts sometimes because in the book man is what corrupts because in chapter one old major said ," Man is the only creature that consumes without producing." in other words it is saying the man (people) take but at the same time they are not thank full for what they take because the animal

The question of whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose organization can be credited with releasing thousands of classified documents from various countries, is a hero or a villain depends entirely on one’s political opinions. Those who believe in transparent government and freedom of speech/publishing would call Assange a hero. Those who believe governments must have some secrecy from citizens would call him a villain. As a believer in the ideals America was founded on it is clear that Assange’s actions are heroic. He is fighting to keep the average citizen informed of any corruption within their government, fighting for the mainstream press to stop supporting the government’s views on

Another example of how power corrupts is seen through Josef Mengele a Nazi physician who became so influenced by power that he no longer had concern for how he affected other people. In the beginning, Mengele was simply an ordinary physician who "...had

Martin Shkreli a young entrepreneur born in Brooklyn, N.Y., who at in early age skipped several grades in school and received a degree in business from New York’s Baruch College in 2004. Began his first internship at the age of 17 at Cramer Berkowitz & Co, the hedge fund founded by television personality Jim Cramer. In 2006 Martin Shkreli started his own hedge fund through Elea Capital Management. Martin Shkreli has a history of jumping from one employer to the other, such as Elea Capital Management, MSMB Capital Management, and Retrophin which ran out of MSMB. All of these companies have law suits against Martin Shkreli due to allegations of indecently handling of funds. In 2011, he founded the biotech firm Retrophin, with the goal of focusing

Thesis statement: Power has the ability to corrupt someone but I believe it depends on the strength of the person to decide if it will overtake them or not.

In December 2008, one of the largest Ponzi scheme surfaced when Mark and Andrew Madoff reported the works of their father, Bernard Madoff to the federal authorities. A Ponzi scheme is an investing scam that promises high rates of return with little risk to investors. The operator generates returns for older investors by gaining new investors. Bernard was arrested on December 11, 2008 and charged with securities fraud. He pled guilty to 11 counts and was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison-the maximum possible prison sentence. A reported $17.3 billion was invested into the scam by Bernie’s clients and only about $2.48 billion have been returned to these victims as of September 2012.

Over the last several years, beginning approximately around 2002 and reaching an all-time impossible high in 2016, prescribed drugs such as EpiPen, a life-saving allergy medication, or Bavencio, a cancer drug approved in March, or even older drugs such as insulin that has been around since 2002, have tripled in prices. Many drugs used for cancer, muscle dystrophy, bladder treatment, and more have prices ranging from $150,000 - $300,000 - a year. The director of health services research for the AARP Public Policy Institute, Leigh Purvis, says: “the simple answer is because there’s nothing stopping them”, referring to these pharmaceutical companies. Unlike many countries, The United States does not regulate drug prices, resulting in drug companies being able to charge whatever price they please. AARP Bulletin stated: “The supply of a newer medicine, however, is controlled entirely by the drug manufacturer that holds the patent rights. That gives the manufacturer a monopoly on the drug for the 20-year life of the patent. During that time, it is free to raise the price as frequently and as much as the market will bear.” AARP - The Ways of Drug Pricing.

After gaining heat in the news, Martin Shkreli announced that he would be lowering the price of his medication. Valeant, another drug company has also been under fire lately for the pricing of their medicine. Democrats in the House of Representatives have demanded that Valeant release their info about how they price their drugs. This demand could spread to other pharmaceutical cooperation's; forcing all companies to reveal their pricing strategies. (Ramsey) A few months ago, New York became one of 7 states with bills requiring pharmaceutical companies to reveal their prices. The other states are California, Oregon, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. However none of the bills have succeeded. If the bills were passed, all pharmaceutical cooperation's would be forced to submit quarterly reports on the changes to their pricing. (Owens). The war to fight against corrupt businesses has only just begun. Over time, the government and private pharmaceutical corporations will better cooperate and work together to have logical pricing in medicine based on funding and production

Many people see the drug price increases made by Martin Shkreli of Turing Pharmaceuticals of the toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim by 5000%, or, the EpiPen’s 400% price hikes as being immoral, unnecessary, and just price gouging, but others and I argue that the increases are well justified and really not detrimental to consumers. Dr. Nitin Damle of the American College of Physicians had this to say on the matter to members of congress, “The research, development, regulatory, and payment systems for prescription medication are deeply intertwined, and the pressing issue of drug pricing and payment will require comprehensive efforts not only by Congress,

However, one may say that power is a bad thing and only cause corruption in one’s hand. They believe that just because someone holds power doesn’t mean they should. In he or she eyes, a leader take power for granted and use it in the wrong way that they will only destroy

The 5,556 percent price increase of a common anti-parasitic drug, Daraprim, used to treat patients with AIDS earned Shkreli the nickname ‘the most hated man in America (Pollack). Private pharmaceutical companies should not be able to set their own drug prices because this allows them to gain enormous profit over the health and well-beings of the humans it serves.

Controversial former pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkreli has said fraud allegations against him are “baseless and without merit”. Exactly 6:30am on Thursday, December 17 the young executive Shkreli who garnered backlash from investor Donald Trump, politicians Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was excorted out of his Manhattan apartment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shkreli who headed the Turing Pharmaceutical Inc. company was arrested and released soon after on a $5 million bond, has been charged for engaging in what U.S. prosecutors said was a POnzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and Retrophin Inc. The maximum sentence for the top count is 20 years in prison.

Shkreli and Gibbs are viewed quite differently even though both have done something society would call wrong. In the case of Shkreli, he raised the price on medicine so that it would be almost unobtainable for those that would need it. In the case of Gibbs, he murdered a drug dealer that murdered his wife and daughter. Shkreli is viewed very unfoavorably since although what he did technically did not violate the law, to most people what he did goes against most people's morals, ethics and values. He was essentially profiting by causing the suffering of others when he should be trying to help them. Gibbs is in a different situation in that while he violated the law by committing murder, his reason for committing that action could potentially

Mark Zuckerberg did not have the routine high school experience. Unless, being recognized by Bill Gates for programing and offered millions is normal. During his high school years, Mark created a software called Synapse, a music player that is capable of identifying your musical preferences. Synapse was rated and reviewed rather positively in worldwide technology digests. After this program, Zuckerberg initially was recognized by Microsoft. Microsoft offered Zuckerberg a bountiful selection of jobs and even offered to buy his software. AOL tried to recruit Mark in order to gain possession of this software. Although, Zuckerberg denied these offers and the chance to be a millionaire and enrolled in Harvard University. He entered his college years with a reputation from Synapse, as a high school programing prodigy.