Many U.S. voters have worked for an employer that is "sponsored" by private equity. These voters know the internal distaste from the greed and leverage boys executing their playbook. PEUs sent jobs offshore. They often slashed jobs and supply budgets in order to fund deals fees, special dividends and soaring interest expenses.
Private equity underwriters (PEU) long sold their investment wares to public pension funds. Now they aim to be the one stop shop for most retirement investing needs, 401(k), IRA, retirement annuity, life insurance. etc.
Elected officials, long PEU sponsored themselves (including post public service employment), facilitated this transition.
Many voters are stressed shoppers who regularly experience the impact of higher prices and poorer quality.
Big conglomerates and private equity were buying up "trusted brands and riding that reputation out until it was a husk of what it was".
"...founders who built brands they love take lucrative offers from big corporations or private equity investors. While they cash in on the decades it took to build their product's brand, the new corporate owners eventually prove they don't have the same emotional investment and are distanced from loyal customers.
"...news industry in the US used to hold corporations more accountable for the quality of their products and service. But consumer-facing business news was decimated when local newspapers disappeared and national news outlets shifted their corporate coverage to focus on investors."In some cases those PEU investors were their owners.
The United States has a local journalism crisis, one that is only worsening. Almost 40% of all local newspapers have shut down since 2005, leaving around 50 million Americans with severely diminished access to news and civic information, according to the Medill School’s State of Local News Report 2025.At the core of this crisis is the rise of ownership by private-equity firms and corporate chain owners, which are gutting local newspapers.
It's hard to be an educated voter when resources disappear or become conflicted and purposely push a distorted message. Far more slanted messages are on the way, intended to get you to put your retirement money in PEU offerings.
Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren. Increasingly, more are one and frankly, it's killing our federal republic (on top of harming product quality and democracy).
