Thread

1. NegativeK · 1789944184 · focus · HN ↗

   Can someone steelman private equity, please? I'm honestly looking for the upsides (for non-investors) of when PE moves into an industry like medicine and begins buying up businesses that traditionally aren't already large chains.

   I already hear the downsides frequently from someone whose work is directly affected.

   1. w29UiIm2Xz · 1789948417 · focus · HN ↗

      These businesses would simply stop existing if no purchaser came forward. Many first-world economies face a demographic cliff where boomers are retiring and there is nobody in the next generation who can afford to take over the local dentist office, the HVAC company, etc.

      1. tremon · 1789993730 · focus · HN ↗

         That's not a demographic cliff, that's a financial power cliff, and it's caused exactly by too much money being tied up in PE companies and offshore accounts. All that money taken out of the local economy is leaving each generation with an increasingly smaller size of the pie, even when the pie itself has been consistently growing. You even admit yourself that the problem is that the next generation "can't afford" to maintain the outgoing generation's standard of wealth.

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