Op-Ed
White Privilege Shows as Owners of Oxycontin Settle Bankruptcy Case
Does crime pay? Maybe if you’re white.
You may have overlooked this bit of news last week. The ultra-rich Sackler family, the people who founded Purdue Pharma, makers of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, had its bankruptcy settlement approved.
The Sacklers will pay $4.5 billion in nine-year installments to states, local governments, hospitals, tribes, and individuals. But the settlement also absolves the family from any liability, in criminal or civil court. In other words, no one can sue and go after the Sacklers’ fortune, estimated at around $13 billion.
The U.S. bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y., has protected the Sacklers who now must figure out how to get by in life. Their mega-vast fortune, now simply vast, was spared by what can only be viewed as the white privilege of capitalism.
No one got locked up. And the Sacklers get to leave with the majority of their $13 billion intact.
And what, again, did the Sacklers do? They simply addicted and killed more than 500,000 people over two decades with their gift to the world, OxyContin.
If any of you have friends or family who have paid a much higher price compared to their net worth by doing time, incarcerated for drugs, then ponder the different treatment received by the Sacklers.
By death count, the Sacklers aren’t as evil as say the coronavirus, which has killed more than 663,000 people in the U.S.
But make no mistake. They’re evil. And yet, they get special treatment. It’s the self-preservation of the 1%. There were thousands of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs hoping to make the Sacklers pay. Now, bankruptcy’s shield makes it all go away. It’s painful to even talk about the settlement. Worthy of an OxyContin.
Labor Day Week for the Working Class
Here’s a good news/bad news note for Labor Day Week from Wal-Mart. It’s raising minimum wage to $12 an hour for 565,000 of its 1.6 million workers, which includes any checkers and stockers in its three East Bay stores. Too bad they’re not discounting store prices by 20% at the same time.
Wal-Mart could have set the raise to a “livable” $15, as has Target and Amazon. Wal-Mart said it’s “average hourly wage” for all workers works would be $16.40. But averages are all for show. You don’t average out your shopping cart in the checkout line.
Add our economy’s reaction to the Delta variant, and the country is not doing as hot as global warming. August had weak job growth–only 235,00 jobs added, with the service jobs in restaurants, bars and hotels taking the biggest hit. Were you hoping to pick up a job? You didn’t in August.
Add to that the cut last week of federal unemployment benefits for 7.5 million people in the nation. Continuation? This time even Democrats said it’s not likely to be extended.
And they wonder why some desperate people consider a life of crime. Yes, it doesn’t pay. You shouldn’t consider it for a moment. Not unless you’re white like the Sacklers.
All that OxyContin killing more than 500,000 people? And now shielded from criminal and civil liability? That’s all from dealing the right drugs.
These super rich people balance their evil by starting foundations that further protect their assets by funding beautiful art exhibits, museums and galleries around the country in places like Wash., DC and Harvard.
Not much different from all the other evil capitalists who hide behind foundations and try to do good philanthropically. But wouldn’t it be easier just to skip the evil and do good in the first place? Sure, but then what about the obscene profits and individual gain at the expense of society? That’s what you’d call the capitalistic way. And now you know the ugly in their method.
Emil Guillermo is a veteran and award-winning Northern California journalist and commentator. He vlogs at www.amok.com and on Facebook at emilguillermo.media.
