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Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

theguardian.com

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Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#51

Post by nradov »

jareklupinski wrote: post #9
giwook wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intentions may be good but that's unlikely to happen in our lifetime. What might be a more feasible solution?

multi-generational households

The reality of most multi-generational households is that the wife is eventually coerced into becoming an unpaid caregiver for elderly parents (who often constantly criticize how the household is managed). This sort of "worked" in traditional societies when women didn't have other options but when they're educated and have their own careers it usually doesn't seem like such an attractive choice anymore.

I'm not opposed to multi-generational households and I have friends who have made it work well. Let's just not assume that it can be a scalable solution.

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#52

Post by AlotOfReading »

nradov wrote: post #47
bradleyjg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure the new owners are scummy, but the fundamental problem isn’t scummy people. There’s lots of markets that are okay-ish notwithstanding scummy people. Even those with natural lock in effects. The fundamental problem is it is at the intersection of two out of the three areas of the economy that have had insane cost growth over the last 30 years—-housing and healthcare (the third is education.) For the first one…

The other fundamental problem is the demographic profile in most developed countries. We have aging populations, and proportionally fewer young people to care for them. I'll bet most HN users wouldn't want to work at a retirement home or assisted living facility even if it paid well. My father spent his final years in such a facility and dealing with him was quite difficult for the staff there. This will inevitably c…

[dead]

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#53

Post by nradov »

0x4e wrote: post #50

>Private equity relies on a basic technique known as the leveraged buyout, which works like this: you, a dealmaker, buy a company using just a small portion of your own money. You borrow the rest, and transfer all this debt on to the company you just bought. In effect, the company goes into debt in order to pay for itself. If it all goes well, you sell the company for a profit and you reap the rewards. If not, it is…

What you're describing is accurate when an individual or partnership buys a small business. Regular bank loans usually require additional security guarantees beyond just the business assets. But large PE firms have access to other sources of financing beyond traditional loans.

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#54

Post by joquarky »

charcircuit wrote: post #39
elephanlemon wrote: post #30

Could someone (please not an LLM) attempt to steel man the following position for me: Private equity is overall good for society

Private equity is good for society because it provides a financial incentive for owners of the equity to increase the value of a company. The value of a company is tied to how much value it provides society. Financial incentives do work in practice in affecting behavior in humans. Especially with the scale that some companies can reach. In conclusion the concept of privately held equity existing accelerates the bette…

> The value of a company is tied to how much value it provides society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#56

Post by youarentrightjr »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #38
elephanlemon wrote: post #30

Could someone (please not an LLM) attempt to steel man the following position for me: Private equity is overall good for society

Broadly speaking, private equity is used to describe anything leveraged we don’t like. When we like it, we tend to describe it as a start-up, family business or simply “firm.”

Hey, it's you again! I was wondering if you would pop up in the comments defending private equity as you've done in the past.

Continuing our discussion from last time, can you elaborate on why you think quoting Revlon is sufficient to excuse the practical differences between public and PE companies?

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#57

Post by calvinmorrison »

mmooss wrote: post #10
giwook wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intentions may be good but that's unlikely to happen in our lifetime. What might be a more feasible solution?

It could happen this year; legislatures just need to pass laws. The hardest part is people posting comments like yours as a diversion from doing real work (though there are other hard parts too).

that's right! if only I wasnt posting snarky crap on HN we'd have a Utopia. Paging Upton Sinclair!

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#58

Post by Amorymeltzer »

The (excellent) Megan Greenwell wrote Bad Company, all about private equity; I'd recommend it. It does a good job of telling the story through a few specific and illustrative examples of people/industries[1], while still explaining everything in detail. Greenwell has a perspective, to be sure, but she's not wrong.

1: IIRC, it's a Toys 'R Us employee, a nurse at a rural hospital, a journalist at local newspaper, and a resident in a PE-owned apartment.

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#59

Post by PearlRiver »

nradov wrote: post #51
jareklupinski wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

multi-generational households

The reality of most multi-generational households is that the wife is eventually coerced into becoming an unpaid caregiver for elderly parents (who often constantly criticize how the household is managed). This sort of "worked" in traditional societies when women didn't have other options but when they're educated and have their own careers it usually doesn't seem like such an attractive choice anymore. I'm not oppos…

It was never an attractive choice- people simply did not have options. In my country it was not until the 1950s that retirement homes were invented and the elderly finally got their social security (remember pensions did not exist).

Re: Private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

#60

Post by tsol »

lisper wrote: post #24
rootsudo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest sign something is broken is when someone writes: "Thankfully, my mother died before the acquisition, and my father died last week, only a few months after the acquisition, so I don't have to deal with this any more." Depressing to read. I'm not sure on which side.

To be fair, my mother had cancer and my father had Parkinson's, and that was a much bigger factor in their ultimate quality of life than any deficiencies in the retirement home they found themselves in. So I don't mean "thankfully" in the sense that "thankfully they died prematurely so they didn't have to suffer under their home's new management", I mean it, "Thankfully the natural course of their lives timed their d…

I didn't read that as saying anything about your character; it's an understandable way to react. It is an indictment of the system that people have to feel that way when it really shouldn't have to feel that way.
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