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The reason appears about 1/4 of the way into the article, and it should be familiar by now: > Sensing an opportunity, a private equity group called American In
by ryandrake 1y ago
The reason appears about 1/4 of the way into the article, and it should be familiar by now:
> Sensing an opportunity, a private equity group called American Industrial Partners (AIP) began to roll up the industry.
As usual, things are the way they are because of unchecked capitalism and private equity being allowed to do whatever they hell they want.
- uxhacker 1y agoWhat stops imports?
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoRegulation most likely.
- monero-xmr 1y agoDarn capitalism and its regulation
- c-hendricks 1y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoIt’s likely regulation is a too-high barrier of entry for foreign products, and it’s also likely regulation was steered by lobbying from the currently dominant vendor.
- bee_rider 1y agoCapitalism that has defects introduced via regulation is sort of like Communism that has defects introduced by authoritarians: the actual version that gets implemented.
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoTotally unregulated capitalism only works in a world full of perfectly ethical and moral people. Sounds like an Ayn Rand novel to me!
- lotsofpulp 1y agoSurely, the government and legal liability play no part in this, only bad businesses.
- ajsnigrutin 1y agoProbably the government, also-capitalist buyers would buy cheaper if they could.
- stephen_g 1y agoOne point is that the US fire services seem to like really massive trucks, but fire trucks overseas are generally smaller.
- mousethatroared 1y agoRoads in the US have more space and homes in the US are more flammable
- throwaway2037 1y agoM A N makes enormous fire trucks, and they are quite popular throughout continental Europe.
- WarOnPrivacy 1y agoSensing an opportunity, a private equity group called American Industrial Partners (AIP) began to roll up the industry. > As usual, things are the way they are because of unregulated capitalism and private equity being allowed to do whatever they hell they want. This is exactly what happened - and why. Capitalism is a healthy system where it is a healthy system. Beyond that, capitalism is either: Beneficial thru flexible, effective governance. Or not beneficial. That's every possibility. Exploitive manipulation of the firetruck market lies outside of the healthy-by-default area of capitalism.
- ianmcgowan 1y agoI don’t get why municipal investment isn’t more of a thing - why can’t cities and counties be their own PE, buy a small fire truck company and turn it into a non-profit? If they captured the surplus that’s going to the PE company surely costs would be cheaper? I guess that’s socialism though, so not gonna happen.
- monkeyelite 1y agoWhy can’t there be more than one provider of this good?
- mousethatroared 1y agoSmall market
- monkeyelite 1y agoSo society would actually NOT be more efficient if another company developed a slightly cheaper fire truck because there isn’t enough gluttony to make it worth it?
- mousethatroared 1y agoYou asked why there's only one company, not what would be good.
- monkeyelite 1y agoThe comment we are replying to: > As usual, things are the way they are because of unchecked capitalism and private equity being allowed to do whatever they hell they want.