#who the fuck can survive on 750 dollars a month

[lobotomy-lady]

I wrote out an entire dissertation length rant but I'm actually deleting it & just leaving a gif that captures the energy of my current predicament in far less words

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 2120

today was alright. my mom woke me up far too early so i could watch out for the guy who was coming to do our lawn - but who didn't show up in the time my parents were gone, so i just went right back to bed when they got back. i went back to sleep around 11. i woke up at 4. another five hours, so that was good, because i'd gotten four before i woke up the first time so i got a total of about nine hours of sleep. which is halfway decent, albeit annoying it was in two parts.

i started in on my stats work today! it took me about an hour to do the whole first module. i'm gonna do the second one tomorrow, and then work on physics in monday and tuesday, if i don't need things due before then. so keeping up with my work should be easy enough this semester, especially since it's only two classes i need to worry about. but i also need to find another job, so i need to file for "unemployment" because they also do stuff for reduced hours, and depending on if that's enough, i might see if i can deal with it just that way. i'm only getting 15 hours a week now, and that's not enough to pay my bills. i need something more.

i was watching psych with joel on tuesday and he asked me if he should get something, even though it was a few hundred dollars. i immediately thought, "no, you don't have a job, save your money for your bills." and he pointed out that he's getting unemployment, and i just realized he also doesn't have any bills, so he has about four grand in his accounts that he can do whatever with, and that kinda shut me up. like, i'm working. shouldn't i be able to make enough to survive? i'm a full time student, and i can't handle two jobs on TOP of that. i just can't do it. i know it's not full-time work for the jobs, but i tried that before. i got sick for three months. i had to drop out of one class, failed the second, and managed somehow to scrape by with a C+ in the third. me and stress clearly do not mix well.

so i'm not happy.

and! and and and! i hit my federal student loan limit, so i can't get federal loans anymore, so everything from here on out is either grants, scholarships, out-of-pocket, or private loans. i have the worst luck, and there are people who are far more qualified than i am, so grants and scholarships are out of the question. i stopped trying for them once i realized that there is nothing remarkable or spectacular about me. there is nothing to set me apart from anyone. i'm dull, boring, and most of all a liability. no one's going to pick me for anything. not a grant, not a scholarship, not a good job. nothing. so i'm stuck, probably for the rest of my life, in a hole where i don't have enough money for anything. and the things that i could cut aren't enough to make a damn difference! i have a car payment! insurance! a credit card bill! a phone bill! those ALONE add to MORE than $750 a month!! making $225 a week gross with about 20% being taken out for taxes, that's not enough for me to pay those!!! and what about buying groceries? GAS? that's EASILY another few hundred!!! i need more money. if for nothing else but being able to pay my bills on a monthly basis. but school? the only reason i'm able to take these classes right now is because they're free. the materials aren't, but the classes are. being broke is just my way of life, isn't it. not even paycheck to paycheck - because i won't be getting one in two weeks. this generally sucks.

and i know i don't have it "that bad," but this is annoying as fuck and i shouldn't have to cry about money on a nearly daily basis because i don't know what the fuck to do. you know what would make everything a lot easier? a universal income.

(a different rant is how much i fuckin hate the fact that human rights are a political statement. like, who the fuck are you to say someone doesn't deserve to at the bare minimum survive, you old white fat fuck? get the fuck out of my government. the world's better off without you.)

i'm angry.

(and i just want joel hugs. this happens every time. i go on a rant in my journal, i need hugs to calm down. smh.)

[ikkanrana]

some more commission slots are open!!!

so my phone is cut again and the reminder fees have piled up since i’ve been a bill behind for about three months now and i currently dont even have money for one of them after paying rent, transportation bills and hospital bills..  this is what i need to pay for it to start up again (its for march and aprils bill) 750:-   = $88 827:-   = $98 

im still unable to get rid of this company until september 2018 which is fucking bullshit, the reminders fees are gross too thats why its crazy crazy big invoices coming in every month im still on welfare and my sick leave just ended which means i have a couple of shitty months ahead trying to handle AF and SOC and Försäkringskassan at the same time to even get rent covered going forward so need to save up some just in case shit goes to hell  (and it wouldnt be the first time it has here) ----------

but yeah i’m opening three new slots to begin with!!! 

$30 - grey scale - +$5 for extra character $40 - full colour - +$10 for extra character

also do sketch commissions where you can pay whatever you see fit over on kofi!!! 

here are some recent examples from the latest batch: 

anything and everything will help GREATLY, if you wish to donate my paypal is tiwaz@outlook.com (same as my kofi) and literally every small dollar will be such a great help if it werent for you guys, again, i wouldnt be able to survive and thank you SO MUCH for all the people who helped me out last time both through commission and donations!!!

if youre interested in a commission hit me up over on                                             tiwaz@outlook.com

(dont message me here because there is a big chance it wont get seen/get lost so please email instead!) 

THANK YOU ALL SO SO MUCH ONCE AGAIN AND PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST IF POSSIBLE, A REBLOG DOES A LOT TOO 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

ikkanrana

/seb

[sea040561]

UPDATE: Suzanne’s 100 Followers Writing Challenge

So, as pointed out to me by the lovely @seenashwrite, I forgot to include the list of prompts when I posted my update about the writing challenge! 

So, I am going to repost everything below the “Keep Reading” tab!

Hey 100 Followers!

So, in honor of 100 followers, I am hosting a writing challenge! WOOHOO! I love reading fan fiction so I figured why not have you wonderful fan fiction authors write so I have stuff to read? LMAO

Here are the RULES AND REGULATIONS:

Suzanne's 100 Followers Supernatural Writing Challenge

To participate, YOU MUST BE FOLLOWING ME!! I will follow you bake!

Please reblog this post and tag any authors that might be interested.

There is a selection of 20 movies quotes, 20 TV quotes, and 20 song titles to choose from. Please choose a first choice and a second choice.

You may write for ANY PAIRING AT ALL!! M/M, F/F, F/M, Trans, Cis etc. Reader inserts ARE included and highly encouraged!

You may write ANY type of fic - smut, angst, fluff, canon, crack, crossovers (with crossover characters as secondary characters), RPF, RPS, Winsister, etc.  

You may use kinks in your fics. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it goes with the storyline.

Message or send me an ask with your choices AND pairings under @sea040561. You do not have to indicate if you are using a kink or what type of fic it is going to be.

Your fic must be a minimum of 750 words! Use the "Keep Reading" tab though. Fics DO NOT have to be a one-shot. That decision is up to you! You retain ownership of the fic.

IMPORTANT: Your quote or song title MUST BE USED SOMEWHERE in the fic as a piece of dialogue!

If you can, please have someone beta your fic even if just for punctuation and spelling errors!

When posting, please use the hashtag #Suzanne's 100 Followers Supernatural Writing Challenge within the first 3 tags!

Tag me under both my blogs: @sea040561 & @my-favorite-fiction67. A lot of people have trouble tagging me under @sea040561 which is why I included my secondary one.

Please include an author's note with your quote/song and where it is from or who sang it, who your pairing is, any kinks and any warnings you feel are needed and tag me in it @sea040561 and @my-favorite-fiction67 along with the title of this challenge

All fics are due by September 15th, 2017. I know there is a lot of other challenges going on right now which is why I am giving 3 months for it.

Finally, PLEASE MESSAGE ME WHEN YOU POST YOUR FIC!

100 Follower Challenge Movie quotes: 

1. "Because I'm 50 shades of fucked up" - Christian Grey - 50 Shades of Grey @sofreddie 2. "I'm not putting that in my butt" - Ana Steele - 50 Shades Darker   3. "It says right here it is a dessert wine" - Jan - Grease 4. "Marty: Do you think these glasses make me look smarter? Rizzo: No, you can still see your face." - Grease @redlipstickandthewinchesters 5. "So long, gay boys!" - Mr Chow - The Hangover 6. "Not you, fat Jesus" - The Hangover 7. "Stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen." - Regina George - Mean Girls 8. "I can't help it if I have a wide set vagina and a heavy flow" - Chubby girl - Mean Girls 9. "Aubrey: I know you have a toner for Jesse." "Becca: A what?" "Aubrey: A toner. A musical boner." - Pitch Perfect 10. "Lily: I set fires to feel joy. Donald: That's adorable" - Pitch Perfect 11. "There's gum on my seat... GUM!" Annie - Speed 12. "Jesus, Bob, what button did you push?" - Young Executive - Speed 13. "All the dinosaurs feared the mighty T-Rex" - Deadpool  @jayankles 14. "That's a face I'd be happy to sit on" - Vanessa - Deadpool - @crowleysplaythings/@allmightqueenofangst (John x reader) 15. "Show Dick some respect" - John Bender - The Breakfast Club 16. "Dick, I mean Richard, does Barry Manilow you raid his wardrobe on a daily basis." - John Bender - The Breakfast Club 17. "Wolverine: You actually go outside in these things? Cyclops: Well, what would you prefer, yellow spandex?" - X Men 18. "Steve Rogers: Is everything a joke to you? Tony Stark: Funny things are." - The Avengers 19. "Gamora: I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - Guardians of the Galaxy 20. "Slater: Didja ever look at a dollar bill, man? There's some spooky shit goin' on there. And it's green too." - Dazed and Confused

Songs:

1. "Love Screws Me Up" - Rick Springfield 2. "Living in Oz" - Rick Springfield 3. "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeren 4. "Thinking out Loud" - Ed Sheeren 5. "Slow Hands" - Naill Horan @redlipstickandthewinchesters 6. "Strip That Down" - Liam Payne 7. "Mo Bounce" - Iggy Azelea 8. "Higher Ground" - Red Hot Chili Peppers 9. "Remix (I like it)" - New Kids on the Block 10. "Larger then Life" - Backstreet Boys 11. "It Make Me Ill" - 'N Sync 12. "Hungry Like a Wolf" - Duran Duran @wonderange 13. "I Wanna Sex You Up" - Color Me Badd 14. "Makin' Me Look Good Again" - Drake White 15. "Starving" by Hailee Steinfeld 16. "Hold Back the River" by James Bay 17. "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt 18. "Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes 19. "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo 20. "Unsteady" by X Ambassadors

TV Quotes

1. "Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it!" - Friends 2. "I'm not great at advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment instead?" - Friends @darling-highness 3. "We actually started an urban legend!" - Psych 4. "Falling in love with you was never part of the plan." - Psych - @invisibleassbutt (Destiel) 5. "It's a gift... and a curse." -  Monk 6. "Unless I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not." - Monk 7. "I'm wearing the hat, where's the party?" - Full House 8. "Okay let's face it, I'm a lean, mean, hugging machine." - Full House 9. "You can have the worst crap in the world happen to you and you can get over it. All you gotta do is survive." - Grey's Anatomy - @benjerry77/@impalapiegirl67 10. "I'm sure it must feel as though everything is coming apart, but you can get through this." - Grey's Anatomy 11. "Scully: You have seen this before, I can tell. You lied to them. Mulder: I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation." - X Files 12. "Dr. Robert Romano: I'm beginning to think that "ER" stands for "everyone's retarded"." - ER 13. "Dr. John Carter: [Instructing his med student] Grab that penis and show it who's boss." - ER 14. "Emerson Cod: Future Me though, is going 'I told you so' up one side of you down the other one... but Now Me is just gonna sit back and watch.'' - Pushing Daisies 15. "Chrissy Snow: You know, if women ran the world there'd be none of these stupid wars! Janet Wood Dawson: Yeah! Stanley Roper: Yeah, all the countries would nag each other to death!" - Three's Company 16. "Ralph Furley: This is a respectable building. NO ROMAN ORGIES!" - Three's Company 17. "Sheldon: I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested!" - The Big Bang Theory 18. "Monica Gellar: Guys can fake it? Unbelievable! The one thing that's ours!" - Friends 19. "Ross Gellar: OK, how about Ruth? Rachel Greene: Oh, I'm sorry, are we having an 89 year old woman?" - Friends (on naming their baby) -  @wideawakeandwriting 20. "Steven Hyde: When Kelso's the only one of us thinking straight, something's wrong." - That 70s Show

[pinelife3]

Ask about me. I wish you would.

Disclaimer: I don’t know shit about shit - but I’m trying.

Feel like my blogging this year (I know we’re not very far in) has been really sub-optimal. Typically I feel like my blogs are best when I get fired up about/really interested in something - they come easier and (hopefully) are funnier and more interesting. I have been interested in lots of stuff, but I feel a lot of what I’ve read has already been well positioned and there hasn’t really been much room for me to butt my nose in and comment. Anyway, I wanna try to steel man Martin Shkreli. Feeling pretty amped about this actually.

I remember late 2015 sitting in a fish and chip shop (Colin’s Catch <3 - I never got fish and chips there, always burgers) reading some shitty article on Jezebel about Shkreli and even though it was probably not a good example of reporting I found it convincing. In 2015 he (or actually, his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals) increased the price of Daraprim 5500% from $13.50 (US, I presume because they only own the US version of the drug) to $750 per pill. Once upon a time it retailed for just $1 a pill. The way people talk about him he might as well be the devil.

From The Daily Beast:

From Consequence of Sound:

From Dazed:

Hahah - from Wonkette (whatever that is):

The New Yorker:

The New Yorker article opens like this:

On Thursday morning, the most reviled person in America arrived on Capitol Hill for a short but memorable engagement with the most reviled institution in America. The institution was the U.S. Congress, which Americans say they hate—though not quite enough, apparently, to stop reëlecting its members. And the person was Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical executive who loves to play the villain, and who can’t decide whether to be amused or outraged when he is treated accordingly. Donald Trump can rightly be called polarizing, but Shkreli cannot: he seems to have precious few fans to balance out his innumerable detractors.

Okay, so I have cherry picked some of the more venomous headlines but I think it’s fair to say he’s unpopular. The mainstream media actively root against him. In December last year everyone was smugly pleased when some high school students made the active ingredient in Daraprim: like because some teenagers can bootleg one component of the drug in a high school chem lab that’s somehow valuable? They didn’t recreate the whole drug, just a key component. And in any case - the whole basis of the outrage was that this was a cheap drug that underwent an unjustified price hike. Has Shkreli ever tried to pretend there was some change of circumstances where they key component of the drug suddenly became expensive to produce? Their position has always been: we jacked up the price because we could. 

Quoth Shkreli:

To me the drug was woefully underpriced. It is not a question of ‘Is this fair?’ or ‘What did you pay for it?’ or ‘When was it invented?’ It should be more expensive in many ways.

And again:

If there was a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle, and we buy that company and ask to charge Toyota prices, I don’t think that should be a crime.

It cost those high school goons $20 (assuming this is just in ingredients - not equipment, facilities, time, fancy lab coats, etc.) to create 3.7 grams of the active ingredient in Daraprim (which apparently works out to about $2 per pill… again, based purely on their ingredients). 

^^ Cute

Shkreli has always said that profits made from the price jacking allow/ed his then-company Turing Pharmaceuticals (he resigned as CEO in 2015 after being arrested for securities fraud - is there anything this guy can’t do?) to work on research and development for cool new drugs to save lives (or make more money depending on your outlook).

Shkreli has consistently defended the move to raise the price of the drug - in late 2015 there were some vague intimations that he would lower the price, but they later backtracked on this and it was later reported that Turing would instead follow some standard procedures to make it easier for patients to access the drug. According to the NY Times:

Daraprim, which has been on the market since 1953, is the preferred treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can cause severe brain damage in babies, people with AIDS and others with compromised immune systems.

According to PolitiFact:

There are only about 2,000 U.S. patients who use the drug every year. 

And if you don’t have insurance you can get it for free here. 

Turing have held this position from way back in 2015: 

“A drug’s list price is not the primary factor in determining patient affordability and access,” Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “A reduction in Daraprim’s list price would not translate into a benefit to patients.”

The company pledged that no patient needing Daraprim would ever be denied access.

How is this dude still so hated? According to the NYT, the programs Turing is undertaking are standard for high priced drugs (because it’s not like Daraprim is unique in being expensive - 12 months’ worth of cancer treatments can cost upwards of $100,000 - Daraprim is a bargain at the low, low price of just $75,000 for 100 doses):

Such patient assistance programs are standard for companies selling extremely high-priced drugs. They enable the patients to get the drug while pushing most of the costs onto insurance companies and taxpayers. 

I feel like only villains say stuff like “it’s just business” - but, I mean, it really is? If you can make money, why shouldn’t you? One of the all time top posts on /r/depthhub is about how Bill Gates is a bad dude because he’s a ruthless businessman who tried hard to beat his competitors. That’s business, man. Why would you work with or help you competitors? All that’s gonna do is take money out of your pocket:

He viewed any successful non-Microsoft software as a threat, even if that software was for Windows. And if that software was cross-platform he viewed it as an existential threat, since it lessened people’s dependence on Microsoft.

They literally are threats? They’re competing products… how thick do you need to be not to see that? Even if something is made for Windows, if it wasn’t made by Microsoft then Microsoft sees none of the profits. Why would they be interested in that arrangement? And some of the complaints against Microsoft are violently stupid:

Apple had contracted out to a 3rd party company to do the Windows port of QuickTime, so what did MS do? They went to the same company and gave them a ton of money to develop Video For Windows, but an insanely short schedule, knowing full well that the company would essentially have to re-use a lot of the QuickTime For Windows source code to get the project done on time.

When Apple found out (their contract with the other company stated that Apple owned all the QuickTime For Windows source code), they went ballistic and sued Microsoft. Microsoft had been caught red-handed and knew that Apple had them by the balls. So MS settled. Remember when Microsoft “bailed out” Apple in the 90s by buying $150 million in Apple stock? Despite what the tech press reported, that’s not what actually happened. The $150 million in non-voting Apple stock that Microsoft bought was part of their settlement (Apple was no longer on the verge of bankruptcy by that point, and didn’t need to be bailed out). The settlement also had Microsoft agreeing to port MS Office and Internet Explorer to Macintosh.

Really sounds like the third party’s fault to me? The third party company shouldn’t have agreed to an unrealistic timeline and they certainly shouldn’t have resold Apple’s IP. It sounds like all Microsoft did was go to a third party company who had proven success in developing a video player for PC (which is sensible) and asked them to make something for them as well. Anyway: so Bill Gates is cutthroat? So Bill Gates wins? So his throne is built on the bone dust of his foes? It’s just business - why should you make concessions for businesses which can’t cut it or are trying to cut into your share? It’s not charity. And Gates knows charity - he’s donated over $28 billion dollars to improve healthcare and fight poverty, he aims to wipe out Malaria in the next generation.

It’s not even a case of ends justifying the means (like, a mafia boss who funnels the spoils of his crimes into an orphanage or something) - Gates behaved in a way which was industry standard for any big corporation and does so much good - if he let other companies survive and make money (essentially taking away from his own bottom line) is there any guarantee that those $28 billion would have made their way into charity?

Tangentally related to this - Shkreli’s capitalist declaration:

Yeah, I’m a capitalist, I’d love to make an even bigger fortune than I’ve got now. But I’m not gonna do it at the expense of a human life. We sell our drugs for a dollar to the government, but we sell our drugs for $750 a pill to Walmart, to Exxon Mobil, to all these big companies, they pay full price because fuck them, why shouldn’t they? If I take their money to do research for dying kids, I think I’m a hero, let alone evil.

Anyway (I got distracted). In an AMA Shkreli did in late 2015, the top comment is:

Hey! Doctor here and I work in India.

Now medically speaking I haven’t yet heard of why your drug’s worth $749 more than my pyrimethamine. Does it improve on the nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea? Does it have a folate sparing effect? Can it be used in pregnant women and in epileptics?

No one’s been able to tell me what your upgrade is or how it works or even if it is a cost saving upgrade.

Now here is my second problem. If your upgrade reduces the side effects of the drug, why is it much more expensive than prescribing say…. Ondansetron and a Folate infusion to counteract the more common effects. I mean even if I used multiple drugs to achieve this and say bundled pyrimethamine with ondansetron and loperamide and an antacid say pantoprazole and suggested folate level monitoring it would be cheaper.

So what makes Daraprim better than pyrimethamine and what changes and upgrades have you made to the drug to warrant the increase in price?

I find this really frustrating because at no point has Shkreli ever said that he introduced a cool new feature to justify the price increase - this dude (the Indian doctor) is just being smug and facetious but you can’t out-smug Shkreli so what’s even the point? He’s just pandering to a bunch of outraged idiots on Reddit. This dude (the Indian doctor) knows the answer to the question (Q: why? A: because he could) and is just being deliberately obtuse so he can pretend to be some kind of altruistic hero: “Oh you mean you increased the price of the drug just to make money? Unfathomable.” 

Even before Shkreli jacked the prices up, it was still much more expensive than similar products elsewhere. Before he increased the price to $750 a pill, it was sold for $13.50 a pill - in India they sell a generic version for $0.05 a pill (and I guess the Indian doctor above uses a $1 pill). So it was already (I am bad at maths but I think) 27000% more expensive than similar products available in India (does that sound right?).

When similar shit goes down the headline is “A drug company hiked the price of a lifesaving opioid overdose antidote by 500 percent” - when Martin Shkreli does anything they invoke his name in the headline (as though he as an individual were carrying out these actions from his home office) and leave Turing (or whichever other company he’s working with/for) buried in the main body somewhere. In the article linked above, the writer doesn’t actually mention the company’s name (Hospira) until the third paragraph and she doesn’t make any calls to lynch the CEO. She opens with this:

At a time when America needs these drugs most, drug companies are hiking the prices.

It’s called supply and demand, bitch. Jesus. (This person is actually seeking drama and pointless backlash, the sub-heading is: “Where’s the outrage?”) She’s an idiot:

Drug overdoses kill more people than car crashes and gun violence in America, and these overdose antidotes have never been more important. But they’re also quickly becoming more unreachable for the people whose deaths they could avert.

Yeah because junkies would totally be carrying around anti-overdose medicine in their purses were it not for the $142.49 price tag. Fuck I’m also angry because no one writing about this stuff seems to understand what a free market is. She says:

America has long taken a free market approach to pharmaceuticals. Drug companies haggle separately over drug prices with a variety of private insurers across the country. Meanwhile, Medicare, the government health program for those over 65, which is also the nation’s largest buyer of drugs, is actually barred from negotiating drug prices.

In no way does this describe a free market. Sure, it’s more lax than England’s system but it’s still heavily regulated and therefore != free market. This is from a post about Shkreli but still applies:

They’re saying that the price hike is such a good example of how the “free market” is pure evil and “just doesn’t work”… well as per usual, those people just don’t see the big picture and have deeply misunderstood the parts they do see.

First of all, the pharmaceutical industry is not a free market by any stretch of the imagination. A free market would be almost a perfectly contestable market. A perfectly contestable market (aka a “free market”) has three main traits… no barriers to entry, no sunk costs, and universal access to the same technology for new firms as well as existing firms. The pharmaceutical industry is actually a perfect example of the EXACT OPPOSITE of a contestable market.

And all of those barriers to entry, sunk costs, and disparities in the level of technology among firms exist because of the actions of government regulators.

The idiot writer of the Vox article on opiate overdose antidotes concludes:

Unlike EpiPen, though, the naloxone price increases haven’t garnered much attention or outrage, maybe because of the stigma that comes with opioid addiction.

In the face of an out-of-control opioid epidemic, the outrage better come soon.

I am so not buying her point about this not being a scandal because no one cares about opioid addiction. People care. Throughout most of the press on Daraprim/Shkreli people have highlighted the fact that it is used by AIDS sufferers to try to signpost how much of a dick Shkreli is. Is AIDS not at all stigmatised? It was until recently. A couple of decades ago it was headline news when Princess Diana shook the hand of an AIDS patient without gloves.

Really, the hysterical, shitty and reactive reporting on this has probably caused much more drama and stress for patients taking Daraprim than the price hike itself. 

Every other pharma boss in the world has made themselves inaccessible and opaque to the public - Shkreli is surely kind of unique in participating in unfiltered interactions with the public. People are more likely to recognise his name than name of his company/ies or the drug itself. That’s kind of an achievement, right? His email (which he shares openly) is martin@thotpatrol.com. He live streams all the time:

In the video above he’s talking about a website he made called Pharma Skeletons dot com (which is what got me interested in him in the first place) where he basically tears apart the lobbying group PhRMA after they tried to scapegoat Shkreli/distance themselves from him as though he were an aberration in the pharma industry. According to Business Insider:

On Monday, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, (PhRMA) kicked off a multi-year ad campaign to try and shift the criticism the industry’s been getting on drug pricing onto a more positive topic. In a press briefing, PhRMA president Steve Ubl described the campaign as “Less hoodie, more lab coats,” an apparent jab at Martin Shkreli, who wore a hoodie while he was arrested for securities fraud in December 2015 and on stage at a conference earlier that same month. 

Shkreli was obviously savvy to PhRMA’s dig and didn’t care for it so he put together Pharma Skeletons to outline how member companies of PhRMA have acted similarly to Turing/Shkreli:

Don’t you dare point your finger at me for the pharmaceutical industry’s troubles. It turns out we’ve all made some unpopular moves.  

I’m so into it. This website is really simple - hardly any CSS, no images or videos. Just a list detailing these pharma companies’ indiscretions with links to sources. The tone is really fun as well:

Mallinckrodt / Questcor

Really? Acthar’s 65,000% price increase represents your values but Turing doesn’t?

Gosh, I’m so upset my portfolio companies aren’t a part of your trade group.

I sued & whistleblew this company after they bought the only competitor to their only drug in order to stop my competition from their high price.

Tax avoider? Check. Ireland.

Marathon

Bro. These guys invented price increases. I literally learned it from them.

Ovation. I can sell & start a new company, too.

I feel pretty convinced that what he did was industry standard. But I really don’t want my argument to just be ‘Shkreli’s no worse than the other guys in big pharma so it’s not fair to criticise him’ because I want to believe that he’s better/special/different somehow. He seems weird and funny and interesting. Everyone wants to hit him in the face. He’s the smartest guy in most rooms he’s in. 

Dumb justifications I’m thinking of:

Maybe he’s a bad dude, but at least you’ve heard of him. For a layperson (hi) he must be the most famous person in pharmaceuticals. Not saying notoriety is cool or in any way mitigates shitty behaviour, but I feel like he’s at least copping to it and is cognizant of what he’s doing and how he’s perceived - probably the CEO of every pharma company is as villainous as Shkreli, but they act like they’re not which gives Shkreli some kind of high ground

He doesn’t seem interested in or at all concerned with PR/PC bullshit

Did Shkreli perhaps inadvertently draw mainstream attention to serious issues within the US pharmaceutical/FDA/insurance/whatever else system? Everyone knows about these problems now. I certainly wouldn’t have cared were the articles not accompanied by pictures of a dude with such a punchable face. Possible downside: Shkreli as an individual is reviled, companies still seem to get away with it

All the pharmaceutical big dogs hate him - not because he jacked up the price of an old, cheap drug (they all do that) but because he drew attention to them and made their shitty behaviour more visible

(Do you think Shkreli gets laid more or less since all this went down?)

The faux hysteria over his ‘harassment’ of a Teen Vogue writer (who wrote this anti-Trump article in December which became really popular because who doesn’t go to Teen Vogue for quality journalism?) really pissed me off. He was mocking her by pretending to be obsessed with her because hot girls are lame and assume everyone is in love with them when really everyone hates them. I thought it was pretty funny

^^ Shkreli decorated his Twitter with pics of the journalist and Photoshopped himself into a picture of her and her husband 

Sidebar about that Teen Vogue Trump article (”Trump is Gaslighting America”) in which she argues that umm Trump is gaslighting Americans… which I find annoying because she’s basically taking away half the country’s agency - like, they know not what they do:

Trump took advantage of the things that divide this country, pitting us against one another, while lying his way to the Oval Office. Yes, everything is painfully clear in hindsight, but let’s make sure Trump’s win was the Lasik eye surgery we all so desperately needed.

The article is basically a plea for the truth. She suggests:

Inform yourself what outlets are trustworthy and which aren’t.

Hmmm. Teen Vogue. I want to cyber bully her too. I mean. Hmmm. 

I feel like in my eagerness to be contrary I get myself into these positions where I’m trying to defend the indefensible. I think Shkreli’s more nuanced, interesting and well meaning than the press give him credit for. Professionally, he’s obviously made some reckless choices and remains self-righteous and smug (hard to tell if he’s always smirking or if that’s just his face). The things he’s done which seem greedy and unreasonable are normal in his industry so if he’s no worse than his peers he’s just a normal dude (I don’t really feel convinced by that). Still, I think he seems cool. He’s entertaining anyway.