
Private equity looting public health in a pandemic - samizdis
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets
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spodek
Related to profiting off pandemics, or rather by causing them: pack animals by
the thousand to breed viruses and put them near other species closely packed
to promote virus mutations -- aka factory farming.

Presto, save money and promote viral mutations that can jump to humans. And
they'll keep doing so as long as it's legal. In other words, expect bigger
pandemics or legislate.

Here's a video on what few are working on but if we don't stop, we'll see more
pandemics:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ppXSABYLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ppXSABYLY).

My short podcast episode on it: [https://shows.acast.com/leadership-and-the-
environment/episo...](https://shows.acast.com/leadership-and-the-
environment/episodes/318-why-pandemics-will-keep-increasing-and-how-we-can-
revers)

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jansan
I find his statement that there were no pandemics before domestication of
animals and therefore domesticated animals must be the source of pandemics
quite bold and it seems to me that it is more backed by wishful thinking or
political agenda than by actual science.

Anyways, it seems that this time the source was bats, and I am not aware of
any domesticated bats.

~~~
spodek
The video also covered encroaching on wildlife territory causing epidemics and
pandemics such as ebola. He seems to have recorded it during a bird flu
pandemic so focused on that type.

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baxtr
I think it tells a lot about the values of a society that let's something like
that happen. And I don’t mean this in a judgemental way. It’s similar to
corruption. It works as long as enough members of society either profit or
don’t care enough.

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xrd
One sentiment I see on hacker news a lot is that "government is inefficient
(and that's never going to change).". But I read about PE and I think: public
servants cannot fight these sharks.

Are there an examples of private equity losing these types of takeovers? Are
there examples of public agencies fighting back and winning?

PE doesn't take over public agencies. But they extract public money in a
clever way and that seems at the root of problems with big government too and
it feels like it is seldom mentioned.

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ironSkillet
I work for a hedge fund where all of the founding partners are billionaires.
One of them said "Private equity is the best business in the world to be in."
Translation: If you are rich, it's the easiest way to get even richer. PE
seems like another example where the rich get to play the game "Heads I win,
tails you lose".

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lotsofpulp
> I remember being at Defcon one year and going into a Vegas casino and asking
> a craps croupier to explain how the game worked, and as he rattled off the
> different odds on the different paylines, I was like, Ohhhhh, I get this.
> This is a scam.

The pass/don’t pass odds are the best of any game in a casino, where the house
basically doesn’t have an edge. It’s most fun to play in a group though.
Almost a positive expected value if you take advantage of the free drinks and
entertainment, and stay away from the other bets on the table.

~~~
tcbawo
The initial pass line bet pays even money and is where most of the house edge
derives from. Unless you have a very low minimum bet and very high odds, you
are unlikely to break even with free drinks. If you can find one of these
casinos, though, it's a great way to learn the game.

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jansan
If you, like me, hate cheating and being cheated, you should really read the
mentioned book "How to Cheat at Everything". Another book that I recommend is
"The Big Con" by David W. Maurer. And if you are one of the few people who
have never seen "The Sting" you should watch it now. It is one of the best
movies ever and you may learn one or two things about cheating.

Edit: I just found that the book has become really expensive. It used to be 19
US$.

~~~
digital_voodoo
Thank you for the movie and the book references. I'm always looking for things
like that, to teach myself how to see and look beyond appearances.

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t-vi
Any profit made not by genuinely improving efficiency/productivity is made
through causing someone else a loss of the same amount.

Now, very few parts of the finance industry genuinely improve efficiency -
classic market making (classic stock market, taking savings and giving out
loans to real people) does, but that is just a tiny drop of water in the ocean
of dodgy modern finance.

The same applies to tech, too, see Uber and AirBnB.

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thoughtstheseus
Look at what PE is doing in the Pet care/vet market. Capture the market, raise
costs and extract value.

