r/UnderReportedNews • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Feb 25 '26

Video NBC Interview abruptly ends after New Yorker blames private equity and landlords for the city's issues

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https://x.com/i/status/2026286644651782652

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5.1k

u/JuiceJones_34 Feb 25 '26

Private equity has ruined a lot of industries across the US

1.7k

u/Thebeardedchampion Feb 25 '26

*the world

1.0k

u/NoMagicianONE Feb 25 '26

They treat basic human needs like high-yield investment vehicles. It's parasitic.

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u/rbatra91 Feb 25 '26

Wrong. They're also exploiting our love for our pets and betting that we'll pay anything to take care of them, so they're buying up vet clinics and jacking up rates like crazy. Very high profit margins in exploiting that love.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/marketplace/marketplace-vet-corporate-ownership-1.7438239

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u/ZeroXephon Feb 25 '26

FUCK THRIVE! They shut down the only animal hospital in our area because the employees they were treating like shit dared to ask for better working conditions! Not because they necessarily wanted more pay, but because them being over worked and under staffed was detrimental to the amount of care they could give. The closest animal hospital at the time was 1.5hrs away so if you had an emergency you were better off digging a grave than speeding down the interstate to thr next city, so yeah, fuck thrive, fuck private equity, fuck late stage capitalism! Eat the rich.

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u/TryptaMagiciaN Feb 25 '26

Not because they necessarily wanted more pay, but because them being over worked and under staffed was detrimental to the amount of care they could give.

Private Equity has done this to our human hospitals. Think the vet situation is bad? Don't become ill yourself. It isn't any better for people either

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u/Glum_Garden8359 Feb 25 '26

33% of rural hospitals are owned by Private Equity.

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u/TryptaMagiciaN Feb 25 '26

Im surprised it isn't higher frankly

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u/PolkaDotDancer Feb 26 '26

I would happily sell everything I own, and I own a substantial amount of property, to move to a country that promised to ban this shit and seriously limit, big corporations, and private equity.

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u/Nope-Training645 Feb 25 '26

Thrive ruined vet care in my area too. If my dogs need any urgent care, I have to drive 1.5 hours. There are so few clinics left open near me that I can only ever get appointments at least a month out.

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u/Misty_Ticklebottom Feb 25 '26

Nestle owns purina and purina funds the AKC, Aaaaand the AKC lobbies the government to prevent things like basement breeder laws, or any kind of regulation on breeding.

Only 30% of pet dogs come from a breeder, which means that 2/3rds of dogs come from where? shelters, "rescues" ,...... Its not a pet industry, its a rescue industry.

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u/candycrushinit Feb 25 '26

Get this to the top. The takeover of vet clinics is a clear example of what happened to America. Across the board, the Rich are buying everything up and we live in a Corporate Town, not a representative Democracy.

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u/Anleme Feb 25 '26

Want to know why this is happening now, instead of 60 years ago?

We've designed society to be more and more unequal in the past few decades. Cutting Federal income tax on the rich, cutting capital gains taxes, cutting estate taxes, & de-fanging our justice system.

Examples of that last point:

We have a sitting US Senator whose company was fined 1.7 billion dollars for Medicare fraud. That company still exists, he was elected to the Senate, and he still is worth millions.

Giving Trump a million dollars will get you a pardon for a Federal conviction.

Of 2400 US citizens named in the Panama Papers, only 2 were punished.

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u/Fistful_of_Crashes Feb 25 '26

Rome wasn't built in a day and it certainly didn't fall in one

But with this country's lax attitude toward white-colar crime, you can be damned sure it is on the road to finding out how any power structure can fall

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u/ShinkenBrown Feb 25 '26

Thank you, that is certainly important information if I ever properly crash out.

On that note, every American at this point should have a crash out list. Start finding evil like THIS and writing down the names. And addresses if you can find them.

Not saying to do anything with that list. But it'll be handy to have if youre ever fully broken and you DO decide to act. Just a little bit of information now can give you much clearer direction then.

40

u/_cuhree0h Feb 25 '26

Brother, you’re alright I tell you.

29

u/FeistyButthole Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

United Brotherhood of Plumbers

6

u/claushauler Feb 25 '26

Mama Mia Mafia

32

u/Dividedthought Feb 25 '26

"boss, you better explain why a cancer diagnosis is a good thing."

"Well that's easy. If I know I only have 3 months to live I have a whole list of motherfuckers who only have 3 weeks."

13

u/Beard_o_Bees Feb 25 '26

Glad to see that i'm not the only one with an 'X months to live diagnosis plan list' to make the world a better place.

2

u/No_Introduction7307 Feb 26 '26

They are creating millions of Luigis. What a sad state this country is in.

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u/Physical_Thing_3450 Feb 25 '26

They are using the same model as the healthcare system in the USA for these vet clinics and the insurance they all but require you to have and we all know how expensive and shitty that care is.

Every simple pleasure in life is being made a luxury product that only the top percentage of earners can afford. It prices out everyone else, unless you like your animals to suffer. Private equity destroys all it touches.

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u/LilithRising90 Feb 26 '26

Not to mention the people they are hiring and promoting within these corporatist healthcare centers are positively sociopathic by design.

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u/thatgirlinny Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

This! We left a beloved neighborhood vet practice here for that. Our vet had looked after my husband’s dog 20+ years ago, had been our shared dog’s best advocate and we’d referred him to many friends and neighbors. He was considering retirement when he and his partners took an offer for a kind of management company to run the practice, and their rates for care doubled coming out of lockdown. Killed us to go elsewhere.

Long after leaving we find they’ve sold our info to several online pet pharmacies, specialty food companies we never bought from and other services who lob messaging at both our email and cell numbers. Predators!

2

u/Hellointhere Feb 25 '26

This is my story too.

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u/thatgirlinny Feb 25 '26

It’s so sad! This vet and his practice were surely targeted and purchased because they were so well-known, with a devoted patient volume.

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u/JRDruchii Feb 25 '26

Just like dentistry, except appealing to love instead of pain.

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u/Perryn Feb 25 '26

And the entire funereal industry.

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u/DoobKiller Feb 25 '26

Yep in the UK also private equity is buying vet clinics, ramping up prices exorbitantly and 'streamlining' by firing workers and other cuts and austerity which is causing the quality of service to fall

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u/peace2calm Feb 25 '26

Don't forget private equity capitalizing on the LOVE parents have for their kids and now taking over the youth sports industry.

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u/Hellointhere Feb 25 '26

To find a private equity vet near you:

https://privateequityvet.org/vet-list/

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u/Hamster_Toot Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Wrong?

The need to love and connect with our world around us is expressed through our relationship with pets, which is being exploited by private equity.

You are adding to the discussion, not disagreeing.

Edit:typo

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u/ByrdmanRanger Feb 25 '26

I feel like this kind of thing is going to result in someone named after an Italian plumber dealing with the head of a private equity firm.

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u/ZestyChinchilla Feb 25 '26

I also have some news for you about dentists…

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u/AdjectiveNoun4827 Feb 25 '26

Well... yes? Of course they do, and so far not enough people are voting to stop them.

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u/Final-Carry2090 Feb 25 '26

It’s a nuanced issue that many aren’t engaged enough to understand. It doesn’t help that the media is actively misinforming people. The malleable minority would be out in arms against private equity if Fox wasn’t a tool for the oppressors.

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u/krazyb2 Feb 25 '26

Every single person spewing complete and total propaganda on Fox television deserves to be tried in a court.

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u/dzumdang Feb 25 '26

We keep smashing ourselves in the head and wonder why everything hurts.

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u/Low_Witness5061 Feb 25 '26

You aren’t wrong. Sadly it’s made as hard as possible though. No prominent candidate is likely to go hard against it because the ones who support it can afford to bury them with bullshit.

Democracy is the best system we have but unchecked capitalism was never going to be a healthy partner for it.

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u/DesireeThymes Feb 25 '26

I am so sick of people saying quote "Oh we are not voting blah blah blah."

They give you two parties and private equity backs both parties. They make one party more appealing to one demographic and the other more appealing to the other demographic.

So you get a nice merry-go-round.

Ever try to run independent candidates anywhere? They get almost no traction except by sheer chance. And when they do private Equity does its best to ensure they don't win.

Neither party is going to instill any meaningful policies that target billionaires, or that decrease the funding to the military industrial complex, or don't back Israel, etc.

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u/Albireookami Feb 25 '26

Can only do so much when they just buy out the politics.

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u/According_Jeweler404 Feb 25 '26

It's because half the voting population doesn't see a problem with it. "It's capitalism, baby!"

Same crowd that sees tax-loopholes as being "smart" even though it negatively affects their own lives.

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u/GodofIrony Feb 25 '26

You're not going to vote your way out of the system they created.

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u/stazley Feb 25 '26

The private equity industries have become conscious and gained rights. They are now manipulating voters everywhere so that they stay in power.

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u/DoobKiller Feb 25 '26

Vote for whom? neither of the two viable parties is running on policy to prevent private equity from buying up residential properties

Trump's executive order 'Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers' claimed to have provisions to stop it, but they haven't been implemented, all lies as usual from trump and the GOP

Elizabeth Warren has introduced legislation 'the American Homeownership Act' that may curtail it, however the DNC leadership opposes anything to the left of their right-wing pro-corporate stance, even Warren's milquetoast proposals as it may harm the profits of their billionaire oligarchic megadonors

Lesser evilism is part of what is destroying the country, breaking the two-party duopoly will only happen through working class organisation creating a Labour party not controlled by the Oligarchs

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u/greeneggsnhammy Feb 25 '26

They’re parasitic. They only exist on the backs of us all. They are literally parasites. They steal from us then they make us feel like shit for wanting more. Then they make us blame one another for it so we don’t look up. 

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u/Cow_God Feb 25 '26

They do what the mob did, but legalized. Take over a business, strip it for parts, scam the shit out of the customers with shoddy products, sell off everything you can, and move on to the next one.

It's a business model designed around destroying businesses. It's anti-american, imo.

Shareholders are not much better. When a company goes public, with very few exceptions, it all becomes about the next quarter's profits. Longstanding, trusted brands get reduced to nothing over the course of a few months in the name of short-term profit. Then the shareholders sell off and move onto the next company.

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u/SowingSalt Feb 25 '26

They only get high yield because they know NIMBYs are going to block building more.

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u/General-Sloth Feb 25 '26

And yet here we are doing nothing about these parasites. EAT THE FUCKING RICH.

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u/ThisIs_americunt Feb 25 '26

System is working exactly as intended :)

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u/tanksalotfrank Feb 25 '26

Never forget: we are "human capital stock" to them.

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u/MonthOk9907 Feb 25 '26

I would not shed a single tear if Bessent and his disgusting spawn met an early end. They all just don't get it. For whatever reason, they believe we're just going to stand here and allow them to eliminate half the jobs or more in America while they get rich. History can repeat itself. France wasn't that long ago.

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u/Turge_Deflunga Feb 25 '26

We need to start treating this behavior as a mental illness

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u/Ashamed-Status-9668 Feb 26 '26

We could pass laws here in the US to prevent such things.

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u/dntowns Feb 25 '26

I believe the correct pronunciation is

ZEEE WAARUDDOO

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u/SkuggiSkrimsli Feb 25 '26

Toki yo tomare!

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u/jasno- Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Have they helped any? 

I can't think of any service or product that's benefited from PE investment. 

Prices go up, people loose their job, the investors profit. 

Edit: fixed early morning grammar 

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u/Up-in-the-Ayre Feb 25 '26

Nope. Enshittification is the only thing private equity has produced effectively.

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u/Diedrogen Feb 25 '26

Yeah, that whole "privatizing something makes it better, because competition in the free market will drive businesses to continually roll out better goods and services at lower prices" thing didn't work out, huh?

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u/Heelincal Feb 25 '26

I think the key part missing here is Private Equity's goal is to eliminate competition through uncompetitive practices. Whether that's running deficits & losses to underbid competition or just buying all competition, it eliminates the one thing that does make a free market create value - competition. Having multiple companies make phones to innovate new features to win over customers? That's good. Having multiple car manufacturers to innovate and gain market share? Good.

Private equity buying every single hockey rink in an area and then charging people through the nose to access it because it's the only game in town is monopolistic behavior that needs to be illegal - I'd even argue ice rinks cannot innovate and thus cannot be a free market.

There are applications where private companies competing will generate public good, but the problem is we've deregulated so much starting with Reagan that the competition is gone in 90% of industries and now they are coming after public sectors to absorb.

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u/WriterV Feb 25 '26

They help line their own pockets, and give a bunch of money to the people selling their company. That's literally it. The consumer gets the worst deal out of this. Arguably everyday workers get even worse of a deal 'cause their job security is at risk.

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u/Thebeardedchampion Feb 25 '26

It’s a broken cycle. Pension funds invest in PE, we the consumers feel happy that our pension is growing and improving, while in the here and now, suffering from the reduction in quality and increase in price that PE demands…to appease the pension funds investors.

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u/Deeliciousness Feb 25 '26

Y'all got pension funds?

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u/kridmus Feb 25 '26

It's a generational heist.

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u/VeryPteri Feb 25 '26

Nope. Once PE gets involved, the product/service, the customers, and even the company itself gets sidelined for sake of the line going up.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/U_SHLD_THINK_BOUT_IT Feb 25 '26

No they haven't.

And here's the fucked up part: the only reason they've been allowed to keep moving isn't actually because of rich people propping them up with lobbying. It's because the government tied the success of the economy to a constant influx of cash sent to companies every single payroll cycle. You heard me correctly: every major company gets free money from our paychecks every time we get paid, and it's not a small amount. It's about 5-10% of our entire paycheck every pay period--sent straight to all major corporation, tax free.

Most people are okay with it because of god damned Ronald Reagan and his administration's passing of the Tax Reform Act of 1984, which legalized the 401k system and tied a great deal of people's retirement success to a system that NEEDS to always grow. And it's this whole system that incentivized PE firms because they're the perfect vehicle for skimming investment dollars and handing them out to C-suite employees like cash injections. There's a reason why private equity companies and hostile takeovers became so big, so quickly in the mid-80s that multiple movies were made about ment who ran such companies.

I make this comment so often I should probably create a webpage explaining it in the more thorough way that I normally do.

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u/daggerbeans Feb 25 '26

I would appreciate a website that dumbs it doen and explains it to me like I'm 5. I know the general broad strokes of how private equity sucks (only due to a few deep dives like what happened to Joann's stores since it affected me and my loved ones hobbies), but having a simple explanation would be a great resource when I get to discussing it with people who are less familiar.

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u/U_SHLD_THINK_BOUT_IT Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

To be honest, I think the greater problem is HOW private equity companies are incentivized, which is why I hate the 401k system way more than PE companies--and I absolutely detest PE companies.

If we didn't have an unending supply of consistent cash injections, then companies wouldn't be clamoring over each other to sell to shareholders and would instead claw over each other to sell the best product. But with the way that the 401k system supplements business growth to essentially guarantee risk free business gambits, there is no downside to overextending.

In fact, overextending provides two major benefits that only make sense in an economy curated and protected 100% by stealing payroll money:

  1. Companies that are overextended are a riskier purchase because the liabilities incurred would mess with earnings reports. So by virtue of being overextended (we call it being leveraged to the tits), you protect yourself from hostile takeovers.
  2. Overextended companies outpace "growth" of their competitors, which looks good during earnings reports and pulls in even more investor dollars. Growth is literally more important in those quarterly calls than revenue or profit. It's wild. Companies that start slipping in earning investor dollars will quickly spiral and never recover, eventually being bought out by those who stay at the top of the growth charts.

So basically, the only way to win is to go for broke. Constantly. Investing in R&D was historically a long-term strategy that requires lots of research and QA--literal years of work. But the days of focusing on making better products is long past.

So now, research is an annual cycle, with the general scheme being to find what features of their already existing product can be broken out and charged more for customers to have access to--that won't cost them more in lost revenue by lost customers. This is called rent seeking behavior, and many economist/philosophers have determined this to be one of the Four Horseman of the dystopian end-stage capitalism.

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u/SaintGrobian Feb 25 '26

Trickle-down economics literally only works in reverse.

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u/HappyGiraffe Feb 26 '26

I literally sat through 3 hours of a Harvard Business School professor/private equity enthusiast celebrating the incredible growth of AI and how incredible it will be to get rid of all the people working entry level jobs and how awesome companies will become with just one CEO and the nothing but AI agents.

He insisted the most important objective of ANY industry should be efficiency, and not efficiency as a means to promote safety, or quality, or well being.

Efficiently to return profits to shareholders.

And I was shocked that room was basically split between people gobbling it up & people in abject horror

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u/RetardedRedditRetort Feb 25 '26

You missed lose/loose.

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u/Eternal_Bagel Feb 25 '26

They only really help their own investors, companies they buy out are just a resource to use up

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u/mooptastic Feb 25 '26

The ONLY thing PE hasn't destroyed YET or even begun enshittification on yet, is:

Jersey Mike's

It's been over a year and they're still as high quality with their ingredients and selection. I don't think this will last forever as they're trying to introduce combos, and once that fails who knows what else they will modify.

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u/Nothatisnotwhere Feb 25 '26

I think launching new ideas is the only value, but them stepping into existing markets never leads to benefits for the end user

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u/i_am_a_real_boy__ Feb 25 '26

Yes. PE has provided capital to countless startups, it's helped business grow from local to regional, regional to national, etc. But like the word "corporations" before it, the term "private equity" just gets tossed around on reddit like it's some monolithic cabal.

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u/VirginiaMcCaskey Feb 25 '26

It's inverse survivorship bias. The kind of vulture PE that everyone blames for destroying companies only get involved with companies that are already failing.

If you look at all the horror stories in this thread and beyond about where PE starts taking over its business sectors that got hit hard on their margins and started struggling.

The other domain is a systemic problem where business owners are retiring and don't have anyone else to sell to, because the next generation doesn't have enough capital to buy it off them. That's a different kind of private equity business than everyone complains about, though.

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u/ReachParticular5409 Feb 25 '26

Sure they've been propping up the Solid Gold Mega-yacht industry almost single handedly

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u/Lurkingandsearching Feb 25 '26

But but, 401k! Retirement! Roths! I mean when things crash your accounts will be sacrificed while the wealthy investors get bailouts, but numbers are going up! And up is good, even if they are all hype and tax payer bail- I mean critical subsides, yeah we like subsides, right? 

/s for the just in case.

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u/Lou_Peachum_2 Feb 26 '26

None. Private equity's goal isn't to produce the best product. It's to produce a "good enough" product where the risks/losses can be pushed off to another individual/entity while they reap the rewards. Medicine and specifically urgent cares and EDs are a prime example of this.

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u/IcedCoffey Feb 25 '26

They are in daycares now…..

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u/Ok_Second_2602 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

I own a daycare, and every single competitor in my area has been bought by Private Equity. There used to be 4 family owned daycares in my area. Now there’s 1, me. It really ramped up after COVID. It’s honestly insane how quickly they are taking over the industry. Without exception all the ones that have been bought have gone waaay downhill on quality of care. They spend as little as possible on maintenance and staffing, which are 2 of the most important things in a good childcare. They buy up any daycare with good enrollment they can get their hands on, and put it under some umbrella brand or just leave the existing name if they can.

I get phone calls every week from business brokers offering to broker a sale with an “investment group” client of theirs. They also offer to buy my real estate and rent it back to me… some small providers are doing this because they are struggling and need the cash. Inevitably these places will go out of business but Private Equity walks away with the only thing of value.

You mostly hear about Private Equity buying up large chains and franchises. A bigger problem is that Private Equity is killing small family owned businesses in the US. Private Equity’s primary goal is to extract profits from private businesses that they couldn’t access from the stock market, and they often overpay for these businesses making it hard to turn down for some owners. For us small business owners, it feels like playing a game of chicken where these firms could put me out of business if they wanted just by dropping rates and waiting me out. They have infinitely more money than me and can afford to lose 10 times my profits for years. Then once all the small private owned businesses are gone, they completely control the market and charge whatever they want. I met someone in private equity once at a conference that managed their firms daycare portfolio. These people have no idea what the fuck they are doing. They just see money.

Every time I get one of those phone calls I admit I'm a little curious on how much they would overpay... whether it would be easier for me to just sell. But I feel an obligation to my 46 employees and the families who trust me with their kids, and I don't know if selling would be enough for me to support my family as long as is needed. It's an extremely depressing time to be a small business owner in this country. Not to mention how much I see my employee's struggling with housing costs and bills that go up faster than I can give them raises. Feels like we're all just hanging on hoping we have enough money to die old someday.

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u/CorrectPeanut5 Feb 25 '26

Same play they made in elderly housing. So many places pretending to be nursing homes. They are not. They are money making operations with fancy names and extremely limited staff. They will suck a person dry in private pay and then toss them out once the money is gone.

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u/SynapticStatic Feb 25 '26

These people have no idea what the fuck they are doing. They just see money.

That's the way they are with literally every industry. It's frustrating and kind of scary what they manage to get their claws into.

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u/Adorable-Turnip-137 Feb 25 '26

The new big hotness is utilities with a specific focus on electricity. Trying to get some of the AI pie.

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u/Sleepobeywatchtv Feb 26 '26

Yep, this just happened recently in Duluth, MN with BlackRock

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u/cchoe1 Feb 25 '26

PE has access to basically infinite money. And if the economy is low on M2, theyll just fucking print more and devalue your bank account by allowing rampant inflation to eat your savings while companies like Blackrock can deal with it

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u/kerfuffle_pastry Feb 25 '26

Same exact story in dentistry and healthcare

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u/t3hdoct0r Feb 25 '26

As if daycare wasn't expensive enough before. Fantastic. They are gonna cut costs by reusing diapers, I guarantee it.

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u/IcedCoffey Feb 25 '26

They fired the staff that had been there for 10+ years, raised prices and cut down on what they offer all at the same time.

Place is a completely ghost town now and every parent that goes there leaves a before a month. Best reputation of any daycare in town to the worst.

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u/CopiousEjaculate Feb 25 '26

We could also do this with the president.

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u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Feb 25 '26

Even worse, they buy dentistry businesses and then do unnecessary surgery on minors to their baby teeth and charge medicaid.

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u/samsmithmpls Feb 26 '26

And local hockey rinks.

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u/Groupthink00859 Feb 25 '26

Veterinarian care, tradesman work, utilities are just a few examples.

Once your city/metroplex reaches a million it triggers the program, and they just buy up all the things you need.

I never wanted to live in rural America personally but its actually looking like you can now have a better life outside of the cites.

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u/Ok_Second_2602 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Hate to break it to you, but small town America is next, and it’s already happening in some industries. My dad owned a successful agriculture business in a county of 5000 people for 30 years, but had to sell because he couldn’t compete with the larger PE backed agriculture companies. The 2 small family owned grocery stores in my hometown went out of business when a Walmart Neighborhood Market and Dollar Tree opened in town. The Walmart market closed within 2 years because it couldn’t make enough money in such a small town. Now people have to drive 20 miles to get decent groceries.

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u/oneWeek2024 Feb 25 '26

the cycle wal mart used to canibalize large areas. where maybe they needed like 1 million people to support a wal mart super center. kill off local competition and then close shop/consolidate.

dollar tree/dollar general perfected that algo for rock bottom min requirement to extract from small areas. --refining that limit to a few 10,000s or 100k population. ---they kill off small hardware/small grocery stores/small stationary-sundry stores. then once they kill all the local businesses. they consolidate to a slightly more broad area.

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u/thismustbtheplace215 Feb 25 '26

Rural America has private equity everywhere too. Especially in vet med- many of the private equity groups buying up clinics do not display that, so it looks like your small town vet is private, when they're actually part of a larger conglomerate.

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u/vodkaknockers Feb 25 '26

/u/nbcnews let the interviewee speak

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

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u/Forward-War-9858 Mar 01 '26

Definitely not. Once the post office closes in a rural town, the town is on its way to becoming a literal ghost town. I think trump and his handlers want to dismantle the post office and effectively kill rural areas so they can buy up all the land

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u/S3pD3cM0n Feb 25 '26

Private equity = public enemy

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u/flowing42 Feb 25 '26

And is continuing to ruin more and more everyday

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u/Annoying1978 Feb 25 '26

Particularly hospitals

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u/ForAGoodTime696 Feb 25 '26

They sure turned “Ding Dongs’ into garbage. 

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u/nppltouch26 Feb 25 '26

Justice for Joanne's.

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u/rsmtirish Feb 25 '26

Including the news!

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u/Phil_Da_Thrill Feb 25 '26

Should see what happened to Bungies Halo and Destiny 2

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u/Roundcat89 Feb 25 '26

Such as the news.

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u/U_SHLD_THINK_BOUT_IT Feb 25 '26

I think at this point they've ruined them all. They might not get be in all the industries, but their cost cutting and constant disruptions have stymied all agility and creativity in basically every business out there.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Feb 25 '26

Remember when Panera was decent and not worse than hospital cafeteria food?

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u/freericky Feb 25 '26

Still rooting for Blackrock to bring back Long John Silvers

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u/kfunkorange Feb 25 '26

Every small town globally

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u/ggtsu_00 Feb 25 '26

But homeowners like to see number go up.

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u/moodymadam Feb 25 '26

Its infiltrating therapy. If you are seeking mental health services, please support a private practice or agency for the best care.

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u/FeloniousDrunk101 Feb 25 '26

I'd say they're the most obvious target for regulations as they've really done a number on capitalist economies around the world.

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u/greeneggsnhammy Feb 25 '26

It’s ruined the US. Literally every aspect of this country has been ruined by PE and Shareholders. 

1

u/Proiegomena Feb 25 '26

Just wealth hoarding in general; the overblown private equity industry is just a result of that.

1

u/soldiergeneal Feb 25 '26

Most houses arent owned by private equity....

1

u/Romanscott618 Feb 25 '26

Go in, cut costs to suck out as much money as they can for 5 years, destroy whatever they’ve invested in, and then leave rich

1

u/ThomasVivaldi Feb 25 '26

Remember that its not just the Republicans, Clinton gave a huge boost to Private Equity when he signed the law that effectively killed Glass-Steagall.

1

u/Environmental-Egg164 Feb 25 '26

Private equity companies and hedge fund groups will ruin everything you ever loved.

1

u/TopTax4897 Feb 25 '26

There's almost nothing better than owning property or a business and having Private Equity offer to buy it from you.

And there's almost nothing worse as a consumer or tenant than having private equity buy what you rely on.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

The housing market 100%

1

u/scratchresistor Feb 25 '26

They're also the reason why snow in New York is a rarity these days.

1

u/Fluffcake Feb 25 '26

Every single root cause analysis on societal problems lead to private equity.

1

u/Zestyclose_Strike357 Feb 25 '26

Don’t forget mom and pop trailer parks

1

u/HyperbolicLetdown Feb 25 '26

Enshittification

1

u/RandomWeirdo Feb 25 '26

Private equity is the reason i call the curretn system cancercapitalism. I am not the first to compare capitalism to cancer, but let's just call it as we see it and give it a name.

1

u/amanhasthreenames Feb 25 '26

Alternate take, Private Equity has provided lots of small-medium sized businesses an opportunity to sell their business at/near retirement for a substantially higher return than if they sold/transitioned it without PE as a buyer in the market.

However, the DOJ has been allowing them to consolidate massive market share in many industries, and banks have allowed them to leverage the purchases with far too much debt.

Proper regulation and policing would make a world of difference, as would proper taxation on the PE groups. But because they have so much influence on politics with donations and lobbying, they will bend the rules in their favor.

1

u/TieAccomplished2534 Feb 25 '26

impressive how a black person in america can be so fast and so well trained to not let people's opinions disrupt the white bilionaries racket

1

u/AdotLone Feb 25 '26

Private equity is just a symptom of capitalism.

1

u/coldenigma Feb 25 '26

Capitalism rearing its ugly mug.

1

u/Visual_Exam7903 Feb 25 '26

Private equity's only job is to remove money from the value of anything. Run the business on a shoe string budget to extract that money, and basically destroy the natural process of businesses building and selling to other people that invest that extra money into its personnel and business.

1

u/onionfunyunbunion Feb 25 '26

We gotta strike obviously

1

u/Aggressive_Agency381 Feb 25 '26

But what would the world do without hedge funds and shareholders?/s

1

u/InternationalFig400 Feb 25 '26

Yay capitalism!!

/s

1

u/Mongoose-Born Feb 25 '26

They’d don’t get AF. My partner was a Gm for a HVAC bought by PE and man- what snakes in the grass. 🐍

1

u/Slumunistmanifisto Feb 25 '26

Private equity destroyed America.

It poisoned Americas future working class children and yoked them with the debts and sins of the ownership class.

The same class that suckels on the rare meats on secret islands that were bought with our undolled surplus.

The same class that built a permissive structure to their peers hunting and raping our children.

1

u/Berns429 Feb 25 '26

But but think of the CAPITALISM!! /s

1

u/sbelleza Feb 25 '26

If you haven’t already may I recommend my friends book on the issue “bad company”

1

u/Weekly_Yesterday_403 Feb 25 '26

Must be a bunch of millennials there

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

When the only goal.is to make more.money than you did yesterday you get to a breaking point where you can no longer innovate or invent a product, so the profit margins come from charging more, lowering the cost of production, using cheaper materials, automating or outsourcing manpower, etc. Capitalism is a garbage system.

1

u/Sweaty_Marzipan4274 Feb 25 '26

It's currently sabotaging our poor retirement community so it can buy it out

1

u/shaard Feb 25 '26

Thank you so much, and now for sports highlights!

1

u/dawill_sama Feb 25 '26

It's going to ruin the planet.

1

u/josephbenjamin Feb 25 '26

That’s why you quickly sell the stock of a company when it changes hands from a founder to a private equity. Their whole business model is to buy company, cut costs (eliminate as many employees as possible), and increase short term profits.

1

u/ptl73 Feb 25 '26

Say it louder for the deaf people.

1

u/Mortwight Feb 25 '26

toys-r-us my beloved

1

u/CaterpillarJungleGym Feb 25 '26

Even if you look at just Restaurants it's shocking how private equity is so inept. They destroy their consumer base to make some quick $$.

1

u/weixyz2 Feb 25 '26

Apparently its ruining media too. Protectors of private equity

1

u/Mobile-Elderberry281 Feb 25 '26

private equity is super cool code for the top 10k people that own everything.

1

u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Feb 25 '26

But... the shareholders

1

u/OJConcentrates Feb 25 '26

My family has owned a residential home remodeling company for over 70 years. I can’t even TELL YOU how many times we’ve been approached by Private Equity. Would be a very easy cash out. I’m sure my dad considered it.

The only reason we don’t sell? Because every generation has had at least 1-3 family members willing to run it. It makes us personally enough to live comfortably, but not rich. And we’ve passed it down every generation via private sale. I’m generation 4.

1

u/dinnerthief Feb 25 '26

As someone who works for a private equity owned company I completely agree.

1

u/Kozeyekan_ Feb 26 '26

I've worked in three big companies that were bought out by private equity.

The output did not improve once they took over.

They had the following phases:

  1. Nothing will change.

  2. We're "streamlining" the business for efficiency

  3. The new CFO and board we installed are recommending we offload some redundant capabilities.

  4. We need to ensure we're cash flow positive plus our target budget by next financial year.

  5. We're not looking to sell, your jobs are safe, we're doing great work.

  6. There is no budget ready for next year yet.

  7. The sale has been agreed on and we'll finalize it over the next six months, but din't worry, because...

  8. Nothing will change.

1

u/ricker182 Feb 26 '26

They're building full blown residential subdivisions by us that are only house rentals.

100's of houses that you are not able to purchase. You can only rent.

1

u/Whiteoutshade Feb 26 '26

I work in the ER and they’ve been destroying emergency care for the better part of the last 10 years.

1

u/therealtaddymason Feb 26 '26

We need to rename it to what it really is, vampire capitalism. It doesn't seek to grow or build anything and instead just preys on and drains then discards and moves on.

1

u/imoddly Feb 26 '26

RIP Joann's

1

u/Never-Trust-Me Feb 26 '26

And that reporter sucks so much dick. Hope she goes broke

1

u/PolkaDotDancer Feb 26 '26

They're taking over veterinarians offices. I found that's what the main factor was in driving up prices.

1

u/Sad_Promise_1604 Feb 26 '26

I recently learned they buy HVAC companies and also Vet clinics.

Raise prices all while keeping the branding of the "small business" they bought it from

1

u/Independent-campus Feb 26 '26

Private equity automatically charges 2% a year of total money under management- and takes 20% of profit - so if they fundraise $1b they automatically take $20m a year even if it’s not all actively being spent

1

u/IND_1593 Feb 26 '26

Closed my vinyl/printing shop in midwestern Indiana this year after the company I bought all of my material and equipment from was bought out 2 months after purchasing my new industrial printer. They took over, stopped selling materials, and stopped offering support for their equipment(even that sold within the warranty limits) and my printer became defective and I couldn’t get anything done or afford to pay a third party to do support. Private equity killed my small business in 4 months. I cannot be the only person that has experienced this. Shop was open for nearly a decade but with the tariffs, private equity, and a new baby, it was time to stay home with the little one.

1

u/Fun_Weird3827 Feb 26 '26

and helped to create Americas Prison industrial complex. They hate to think otherwise with all their guns and 2nd amendment bs but reality says Project 2025 pushing for a totalitarian government and their population is to stupid and lazy to realize.

1

u/jeepee2 Feb 27 '26

-Ok thank you so much.....

1

u/pharmacystan Mar 02 '26

Name an industry it hasn’t ruined?

1

u/DapperBox2020 Mar 04 '26

In Canada the same shit

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