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Private equity bought America's essential services

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Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#471

Post by kokanee »

BirAdam wrote: post #459

All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse. Pensions were part of the contract of employment for many old companies. As those companies became more interested in ever higher rates of return without offering higher value to customers, the companies became fragile. Becoming fragile, they were eventually broken. Then…

We need to figure out how to effectively organize boycotts, and find a way to actually incentivize participation.

I'm spitballing here, but what if we created a browser extension that gives users the option to block various monopolistic/oligarchic tech platforms. If the browser navigates to a blocked platform, we show a "consider these alternatives" page instead. Competitors to the monopolies could offer incentives (raffles, discounts, etc) in exchange for promotion on the recommended alternatives list, creating an incentive to participate in a boycott.

Example: a user opts into an Amazon boycott, but later clicks an affiliate link that leads them to a book listing on amazon.com. The browser extension intercepts this and displays a list of other places to shop for that book. Barnes and Noble offers a 10% discount for people who boycott Amazon, so they're the top recommended alternative, and the user gets the book for a discount.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#472

Post by deepfriedchokes »

quickthrowman wrote: post #470
deepfriedchokes wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should be encouraging employee stock purchase plans with tax incentives. [0] It’s better for the businesses and better for our communities than PE. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_purchase_plan

I think you meant ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program), not ESPP. I work for a 100% ESOP company and it’s been very beneficial to me and also the former owners were able to cash out without selling to the devil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_ownership_plan An ESOP is where a portion of or an entire company is sold to the employees. Our company took out loans to acquire the shares from the former own…

You are correct ESOP was what I was thinking of. Thank you for the correction. Worked great for Bob’s Red Mill I believe. Glad to hear it’s been a success for you and your company.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#473

Post by roenxi »

alexpotato wrote: post #376
yardie wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the tools we use was bought by PE last summer. When it was time to renew our support contract had tripled in price. I use it across 10 projects so our costs went from $200k to $500k. I let our account manager know this was unacceptable but even his hands were tied. Cancelled those contracts and let them know we were retooling with a competing tool and opensource to fill those gaps. The impression I got was we…

> By year 3 they start the squeeze, layoffs, asset selloffs (stripping), and lowering quality, raising prices. That is where the real teeth of wolf are shown. To play devil's advocate: Doesn't this also open the market to new entrants? e.g. young person looking to start a HVAC company in the old days couldn't compete with the established firm that already had contracts and the local market wasn't big enough for two p…

Yes, if it is possible. The issue when economic strip mining becomes the best strategy are usually from somewhere deeper in the system. It wouldn't be a shock if the root cause was some inane regulatory decision that means the market isn't being allowed to reach a sensible equilibrium.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#474

Post by sseagull »

generic92034 wrote: post #335
MisterTea wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When it was time to renew our support contract had tripled in price. Currently in PE hell myself. Company I work for was bought out few years ago when the owner cashed out. Right out of the gate it was a numbers go up game. New sales person was hired and their first order of business was - drum roll please - triple prices! Customers balked. Some walked. In addition, some employee benefits evaporated, vacation time…

Yes, that is typical for a certain kind of management. Only costs that are visible and easily measurable are taken into account. Invisible costs or costs that are hard to measure are ignored, even though they may amount to a whole lot, up to the ruin of the company. Employee motivation is one example for the second type of costs, while the 500 bucks per month for pizza were easily seen and cut.

The McNamara fallacy. One of my favorite fallacies vaguely related to Goodhart’s Law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#475

Post by BirAdam »

kokanee wrote: post #471
BirAdam wrote: post #459

All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse. Pensions were part of the contract of employment for many old companies. As those companies became more interested in ever higher rates of return without offering higher value to customers, the companies became fragile. Becoming fragile, they were eventually broken. Then…

We need to figure out how to effectively organize boycotts, and find a way to actually incentivize participation. I'm spitballing here, but what if we created a browser extension that gives users the option to block various monopolistic/oligarchic tech platforms. If the browser navigates to a blocked platform, we show a "consider these alternatives" page instead. Competitors to the monopolies could offer incentives (…

That’d be cool. I am not good at negotiating, sales, or anything g of that sort so I’d be the wrong person to help get companies on-board. I’d love to see something like this tho. I’d certainly use it.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#476

Post by [deleted] »

kokanee wrote: post #471
BirAdam wrote: post #459

All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse. Pensions were part of the contract of employment for many old companies. As those companies became more interested in ever higher rates of return without offering higher value to customers, the companies became fragile. Becoming fragile, they were eventually broken. Then…

We need to figure out how to effectively organize boycotts, and find a way to actually incentivize participation. I'm spitballing here, but what if we created a browser extension that gives users the option to block various monopolistic/oligarchic tech platforms. If the browser navigates to a blocked platform, we show a "consider these alternatives" page instead. Competitors to the monopolies could offer incentives (…

[deleted]

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#477

Post by amazingman »

BirAdam wrote: post #459

All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse. Pensions were part of the contract of employment for many old companies. As those companies became more interested in ever higher rates of return without offering higher value to customers, the companies became fragile. Becoming fragile, they were eventually broken. Then…

>All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse

Most of the Trump supporters most everyone here knows are also the oldest folks they know. Funny that.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#478

Post by BirAdam »

amazingman wrote: post #477
BirAdam wrote: post #459

All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse. Pensions were part of the contract of employment for many old companies. As those companies became more interested in ever higher rates of return without offering higher value to customers, the companies became fragile. Becoming fragile, they were eventually broken. Then…

>All of the oldest folks I knew were wrong about many things, but they were right to say that morality must be at the center of all public discourse Most of the Trump supporters most everyone here knows are also the oldest folks they know. Funny that.

I wrote: “oldest folks I knew” and I was referencing those who are no longer with us, and who were members of generations before boomers…

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#479

Post by cadamsdotcom »

> burning building and four people die, the cause isn’t just mechanical failure. It’s a business model.

Please edit out the AI-isms in your article. If you do, let me know and I’ll come back and read your thing.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Re: Private equity bought America's essential services

#480

Post by brianwawok »

Twistyfiasco wrote: post #440
throwforfeds wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least here in NYC, a large part of a NYPD officer's pension is calculated based on a 3-year look back from their retirement date, so there is a huge incentive to work as much overtime as possible in order to bump that number in your last few years of service. There are lots of stories of NYPD handing out easy overtime in massive numbers for each other, particularly when they are about to retire. Teachers are the e…

At least in my union defined benefit pension it specifically excludes overtime since that obviously is ripe for abuse. It's just your basic calculation: average of your best 5 years of salary at 2% per year of service. Is that not the case for police unions in the states?

Normally includes overtime and only the best few years. Can juice it to get a pension around your 40 hour salary for life.
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