3 ms·

Private equity destroys everything it touches

by thatmf 6mo ago

igleria 6mo ago
except for the shareholder's wallets. sometimes.
- frantathefranta 6mo ago
  Also Barnes & Noble weirdly
  - dyingkneepad 6mo ago
    You're trying to say they are good quality!? I recently had to gift someone some books, so I decided to try B&N online shipping since Amazon sometimes damages books. I ordered 3 books: all 3 came loose in a big box, all 3 were damaged: they looked like used books, unacceptable as a gift. I returned them, they didn't have ship-to-store option (which was what Gemini was telling me to push for), and they sent me new ones: all 3 arrived damaged, again. It turns out, B&N is worse than Amazon: 100% book damage rate on 6 books, worse customer support, worse return policy, worse everything. Enshitification 100%.
    - AlexB138 6mo ago
      I have found basically no way to buy books online where they don't arrive damaged at this point. I've gone through multiple return/rebuy cycles with Amazon trying to get an undamaged copy and have just given up. I don't know if it's my local distribution center, but it's something like 90% damaged on arrival at this point. Amazon has had massive quality reduction over the years in their service, but this one and the poor-quality knock-off books are the ones that bother me most.
    - everybodyknows 6mo ago
      Publishers sell directly -- haven't tried it myself. Anyone? https://www.simonandschuster.com/ https://www.simonandschuster.com/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/
- wholinator2 6mo ago
  We really shouldn't be creating and allowing a society where the rich can get rich off of destroying the quality of life for everyone else. Smells like guaranteed eventual revolution to me. Also, don't these people understand that they are destroying everything they was good. Like, surely they understand through all the corporate speak and distended responsibilities that they are directly making everyone's lives worse, for profit. If they do it to toys, to electronics, to websites, apps, then they do it to housing, to Healthcare, to education, to food, to survival itself. These people are literally, intentionally ruining as many people's lives as much as possible in the most effective way they can other than walking down the street shooting random people. Likely, the distributed and multiplied increments of shittifying add up to much more than killing some people, and yet we let them get away with it. Is there any kind of legal framework that can take into account quality of life? I assume it would be pretty distopian in other ways. But when the "market" exists only to consolidate power into rich peoples hands so they can steal more and more and more from people who aren't rich, isn't that at least a crime of the soul? Last question. If every hedgefund, private equity group was dissolved overnight, and prevented from ever being recreated. The owners forced to find a way to survive that didn't destroy others hard work, what would we lose? I'm sure they provide some kind of actual service for literally anyone other than making rich people richer right? But what? What is it that these financial frameworks actually do that helps anyone?
  - pocksuppet 6mo ago
    I think they know what they're doing and have no reason to care. Why would they? They're getting rich.
    - lores 6mo ago
      In the immortal words of Ladré: Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira! Les aristocrates à la lanterne. Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira! Les aristocrates on les pendra. Si on n’les pend pas On les rompra. Si on n’les rompt pas On les brûlera.
  - timacles 6mo ago
    They do it because, In the words of Gordon Gecko, they can. To them, theres a never ending line of hungry vultures right behind them, and if they do not do it, someone will take their place and do it and profit from it. So naturally they MUST do it, because it will inevitably be done also. > What is it that these financial frameworks actually do that helps anyone? They are supposed to clean out inefficiencies in economies. They theoretically expose weakness and exploit it, so it can be rebuilt stronger. Its hard to argue against the premise - In a true capitalistic system. The problem is, the good old USA is a crony capitalistic system, and the politicians are for sale. When private equity can simply erode your business structure with policy, and then buy you out. It is not real capitalism. At the end of the day, capitalism is the best system we have. The problem is the corruption of man, until we patch that bug, its going to keep causing these exploitable buffer overflows. Unfortunately, the code is in our limbic system, which is really old legacy code
SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago
Lots of brands are public and also shit now. Perhaps the issue is that MBAs are ruining everything?
- blitzar 6mo ago
  Pivot from shoes to Ai for a quick 580% gain.
- dgudkov 6mo ago
  Let's not pretend that shareholders are innocent. They are happy with the quick buck the board gives them.
  - SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago
    Let’s not pretend that it’s some massive percentage of normal investors that get any say in this. OK, pension fund, investors, black rock, Vanguard, city group, all of Wall Street want to see the number go up right? And what’s the easy way to make the number go up? Run as lean as possible even if it means supply chain fragility, over optimize, under deliver because who cares, sacrifice the long-term. Like I said… MBAs.

Private equity destroys everything it touches

by thatmf 6mo ago

Private equity destroys everything it touches

igleria 6mo ago

except for the shareholder's wallets. sometimes.

frantathefranta 6mo ago
Also Barnes & Noble weirdly
- dyingkneepad 6mo ago
  You're trying to say they are good quality!? I recently had to gift someone some books, so I decided to try B&N online shipping since Amazon sometimes damages books. I ordered 3 books: all 3 came loose in a big box, all 3 were damaged: they looked like used books, unacceptable as a gift. I returned them, they didn't have ship-to-store option (which was what Gemini was telling me to push for), and they sent me new ones: all 3 arrived damaged, again. It turns out, B&N is worse than Amazon: 100% book damage rate on 6 books, worse customer support, worse return policy, worse everything. Enshitification 100%.
  - AlexB138 6mo ago
    I have found basically no way to buy books online where they don't arrive damaged at this point. I've gone through multiple return/rebuy cycles with Amazon trying to get an undamaged copy and have just given up. I don't know if it's my local distribution center, but it's something like 90% damaged on arrival at this point. Amazon has had massive quality reduction over the years in their service, but this one and the poor-quality knock-off books are the ones that bother me most.
  - everybodyknows 6mo ago
    Publishers sell directly -- haven't tried it myself. Anyone? https://www.simonandschuster.com/ https://www.simonandschuster.com/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/
wholinator2 6mo ago
We really shouldn't be creating and allowing a society where the rich can get rich off of destroying the quality of life for everyone else. Smells like guaranteed eventual revolution to me. Also, don't these people understand that they are destroying everything they was good. Like, surely they understand through all the corporate speak and distended responsibilities that they are directly making everyone's lives worse, for profit. If they do it to toys, to electronics, to websites, apps, then they do it to housing, to Healthcare, to education, to food, to survival itself. These people are literally, intentionally ruining as many people's lives as much as possible in the most effective way they can other than walking down the street shooting random people. Likely, the distributed and multiplied increments of shittifying add up to much more than killing some people, and yet we let them get away with it. Is there any kind of legal framework that can take into account quality of life? I assume it would be pretty distopian in other ways. But when the "market" exists only to consolidate power into rich peoples hands so they can steal more and more and more from people who aren't rich, isn't that at least a crime of the soul? Last question. If every hedgefund, private equity group was dissolved overnight, and prevented from ever being recreated. The owners forced to find a way to survive that didn't destroy others hard work, what would we lose? I'm sure they provide some kind of actual service for literally anyone other than making rich people richer right? But what? What is it that these financial frameworks actually do that helps anyone?
- pocksuppet 6mo ago
  I think they know what they're doing and have no reason to care. Why would they? They're getting rich.
  - lores 6mo ago
    In the immortal words of Ladré: Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira! Les aristocrates à la lanterne. Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira! Les aristocrates on les pendra. Si on n’les pend pas On les rompra. Si on n’les rompt pas On les brûlera.
- timacles 6mo ago
  They do it because, In the words of Gordon Gecko, they can. To them, theres a never ending line of hungry vultures right behind them, and if they do not do it, someone will take their place and do it and profit from it. So naturally they MUST do it, because it will inevitably be done also. > What is it that these financial frameworks actually do that helps anyone? They are supposed to clean out inefficiencies in economies. They theoretically expose weakness and exploit it, so it can be rebuilt stronger. Its hard to argue against the premise - In a true capitalistic system. The problem is, the good old USA is a crony capitalistic system, and the politicians are for sale. When private equity can simply erode your business structure with policy, and then buy you out. It is not real capitalism. At the end of the day, capitalism is the best system we have. The problem is the corruption of man, until we patch that bug, its going to keep causing these exploitable buffer overflows. Unfortunately, the code is in our limbic system, which is really old legacy code

SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago

Lots of brands are public and also shit now. Perhaps the issue is that MBAs are ruining everything?

blitzar 6mo ago
Pivot from shoes to Ai for a quick 580% gain.
dgudkov 6mo ago
Let's not pretend that shareholders are innocent. They are happy with the quick buck the board gives them.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago
  Let’s not pretend that it’s some massive percentage of normal investors that get any say in this. OK, pension fund, investors, black rock, Vanguard, city group, all of Wall Street want to see the number go up right? And what’s the easy way to make the number go up? Run as lean as possible even if it means supply chain fragility, over optimize, under deliver because who cares, sacrifice the long-term. Like I said… MBAs.