Private equity is shit. But credit is a vital part of the economy, and creditors are investors no matter how you look at it.
So without investors you rely on banks. Do you think more power to banks is the solution to all of our problems? Because I sure as hell don’t.
Without investors or creditors, the alternative is being able to self-finance everything. That means sitting on money until a large project can be paid for up front and in full. That means even larger amounts of money staying idle.
But performing those projects is vital to the motion of the economy. Spending $50 mil to build a new factory, for example, means lots of work for tradespeople and everywhere in the supply chain for all materials.
You all bemoan the super wealthy. Do you think the world would be a better place if Musk had 230B stuffed in a mattress doing nothing? Because that’s the world you’re describing.
Private equity is a bullshit industry that shouldn’t exist. You have my agreement there. Companies that exist solely for the purpose of buying and selling control of companies, or artificially inflating the value of commodities are evil, full stop, 0 disagreement. But barring private investment means centralizing power in banks. Even co-ops, I think, at large scale would be dangerous. Everyday people are far too risk averse to gamble their livelihood on long-term investments in their business.