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datsci_est_2015 • today at 2:04 AM • 5 replies • view on HN

Services that PE has ruined in my city by rent-seeking:

  - Veterinary services
  - Dental services
  - Optometry services
  - Urgent care services
I go out of my (sometimes significantly) to go to non-PE owned companies and services, and the experience is so much better it's like experiencing an entirely different quality of life. My 2¢ is that a decent chunk of the "dissolution of the social contract" in the US is due to the way that people are treated when they interact with these soulless entities.

Replies

ekropotin • today at 3:26 AM

I wish there were some kind of public database that allowed easy lookup of whether a given company is owned by a private equity firm.

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shrubble • today at 3:35 AM

Storage unit rental went from $90 in 2014 to $110 about 2017, but then was acquired by CubeSmart which is publicly traded: now $241 per month. I know the local taxes and they have stayed about the same all those years.

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Fezzik • today at 9:30 AM

Though less critical to our lives, PE has ruined loads of retail and restaurant options as well - Sears, Toy ‘R’ Us, Red Lobster, and Shari’s come to mind.

alejo • today at 5:11 AM

Water used to be managed by a local cool here where I live. I had been for decades.

A few months ago i got an email saying that PE had acquired it.

I was paying between ~$25/month before. Today i got the first bill from new management for $89.

Same volume/usage, nothing significantly different.

Sigh.

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jojobas • today at 3:45 AM

Coutry wide only 16% of dental practices are DSO, and it's not that functionally different from junior dentists getting loans to set up their practices with practices themselves as a collateral.