This book is a real eye-opener. It reveals that the deliberate dumbing down for profit that Cory Doctorow, in referencing the tech industry, calls enshittification (look it up; it’s even in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary) has hit numerous other facets of American industry and economy as well. In many cases, the culprit is private equity. Greenwell explains in the introduction that “private equity at large exists solely to make money for shareholders, no matter what that means for the companies it owns.” She explains “how private equity reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, creating a new class of billionaires while stripping ordinary people of their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and their sense of security.” To accomplish this, she delves into the lives of four people whose lives were upended by the predatory rapacity of private equity as gigantic multi-billion dollar firms took over their businesses: “a retail chain, a small-town hospital, a newspaper company, and an apartment complex.”

In getting up close and personal, Greenwell allows us to viscerally experience the horrors as private equity purchases businesses and then obliterates them to create wealth for their shareholders. The pattern is similar across industries. Private equity firms first purchase businesses, or preferably blocks of businesses, mainly through massive loans, which they then unload on the businesses they are buying, putting them so deeply in debt that they have almost no hope of recovering. On top of the loan payments they impose substantial management fees and charge rent for the properties the businesses used to own outright – or often they sell the real estate, forcing the businesses to downsize and rent smaller spaces. The equity firms also institute cost-saving measures such as cutting staff and raising prices. They don’t give a damn about the businesses themselves or the communities they serve; in fact, most of the equity firms are in offices thousands of miles away.

To demonstrate the impact of such rapaciousness in the retail sector, the example is Toys R Us, a now defunct chain that was once a beloved institution nationwide. When private equity got its claws into it, Toys R Us and its offshoot Babies R Us didn’t stand a chance. No effort was made to upgrade the stores or create an online presence; instead, stores were shuttered and sold, employees were fired without severance, and generations of families who valued Toys R Us were left in the lurch. All so that rich investors could get even richer.

Have you ever wondered why healthcare has gotten so unreliable and expensive? To illustrate how private equity works in the healthcare industry, Greenwell uses the example of a hospital in a rural area of Wyoming. It was once a thriving medical center on which the small town of Riverton depended, but when private equity seized it, services were cut and staff severely reduced until people had to travel long distances to other locations to get the care they needed.

Journalism is another area that has become vulnerable to the ravages of private equity. Once newspapers are bought up, staff is slashed and local news is ignored in favor of generic national newsfeeds. And private equity has also gone after rental housing. After apartments and other facilities are acquired, rents skyrocket and maintenance becomes all but nonexistent.

Greenwell explains: “When we talk about how private equity affects communities, we’re really talking about how it affects people, the individuals who have no choice but to rely on firms for their jobs, their homes, their essential services.” That’s why it’s so powerful when she focuses on those whose lives are devastated by private equity: a Toys R Us employee, a small town doctor, a dedicated journalist, and a mother who becomes an activist when her family’s home, an apartment in a huge private equity-owned complex, begins to fall apart because of management neglect.

As I read Bad Company, I realized that its examples are only the tip of the iceberg. In modern-day America, the divide between the rich and poor gets ever wider, largely through the avariciousness of the wealthy predators that Greenwell exposes. She proposes possible solutions, but they are long shots, as even numerous politicians, who are supposed to be protecting the people, have gotten into the private equity game. Still, it is worthwhile to be aware of these things, and Greenwell does a great job of proving her points. Highly recommended.