This week, Congress held a hearing on private equity, and AOC wasn’t standing for any of the propaganda the pro-Wall Street folks were trying to peddle.
Over the last few years, private equity has cost the United States at least 590,000 lost jobs from gutting companies like Toys”R”Us, Brookstone, David’s Bridal, and Payless.
Some members of Congress were openly defending these “vulture capitalist” companies like Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital — focusing on the handful of jobs created, and missing the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.
The winners in all this? Well, they’re not the employees of these companies, that’s for sure. Here’s how private equity works: Wealthy groups or Wall Street companies bid for struggling corporations, and buy them.
Then, they cut costs to make the companies look profitable to other buyers, and try to boost short term profits. How? They slash earned benefits for workers, close stores in lower-performing areas, and force workers to choose between being laid off or having their hours (and subsequent pay) cut down.
Our leaders are supposed to protect people, not profits.
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