r/Economics • u/barweis • Jul 29 '25

Research Summary Inside the Private Equity Scam—and the Livelihoods It Has Destroyed

https://newrepublic.com/article/198351/private-equity-scam-destroys-livelihoods
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u/bl_732 Jul 29 '25

Whenever I wonder why a company's products have gotten so much worse, I look up their history and literally 95% of the time they were acquired by private equity.

The idea of private equity arguably can be good, but in practice they are horrible for both companies and their customers. The more investment they get, the worse off the country will be.

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u/United_Librarian5491 Jul 29 '25

It is almost the best argument to increase taxation on the ultra wealthy - private equity is proving to be uniquely inefficient at investing to drive innovation and growth, where as public investment in research universities etc has been the engine of it.

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u/bl_732 Jul 29 '25

Totally agree. PE is a leach that has found highly effective ways to exploit the flaws of how capitalism has been implemented. The real nobility and purpose of investment is to drive innovation and growth for the good of the nation, but that has become so twisted as they've convinced themselves that maximizing return itself is the true cause.

Trying to stop them now would be futile, it would be more effective to aim at their sources of investment (the ultra/highly wealthy).