A Monster Controlling Thousands of Lives

The idea of money creating monsters is very relevant, with the recent news of Martin Shkreli, raising the price of a medication so it is unavailable for many people.  For those who don't know, Shkreli is the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, a company that manufactures a pill used to treat AIDS, along with other diseases.  In September he raised the price from $13.50 per pill to $750, over a 5,000% increase.  This made it so many people who need this medication in order to live, are unable to obtain it.  He is able to do this due to the capitalistic economy lack of price cap put in place by the government. A price cap usually isn't necessary, because in order for a company to stay competitive, they have to have similar prices compared to their competition.  In Shkreli's case, along with many medications, there is no competition due to patents so they are able to set the price to whatever they please.  Normally this would be seen as simple greed, but when human lives are at stake, it turns into much more than that.

We often see when people come into a lot of money they change. This brings up the debate if it is money that creates these monsters of if the money brings out the monster that has always been inside of them.  When a person suddenly comes into a large sum of money, they are thrown into a position of power they have never experienced before.  They become disconnected from the poor and may start to blame them and them alone for being in the position they are in.  Martin Shkreli and the capitalist economy has put him in a position where he can either lower the price of the pill or keeping the price high, resulting in increased profits with the only downsides being hated among a small population and having many deaths on your hands.  When you are in a position to choose money, or saving lives and you go with money, you are no less monstrous than the ones we see on television and movies.  Money hasn't created this monster, it was just a tool used to reach a point where you can control thousands of people however you please.