Patients are more likely to fall, get new infections, or experience other forms of harm during their stay in a hospital after it is acquired by a private equity firm, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School.
Many of these hospitals were capitalist before the takeover too – they just were beholden to local owners rather than big national firm owners.
Local ownership is a VERY powerful check on the power of capital. Communities can hold sway over owners beyond what is reflected the general ledger of the business. And one of the reasons big national brands are good at out-competing local business is precisely BECAUSE they can ignore these social costs – even externalize them – and reap further profit for the exercise.
Even if you’re anticapitalist as fuck, this is why it is still important to buy and support local business whenever possible. Because the less local the business is, the less it cares about its customers and employees’ welfare.
And when local owners get greedy and want to sell to big firms, it’s very important to hit them with as much social punishment as possible. Friends don’t let friends sell their businesses to hedge funds.
Local ownership can cut both ways. Local businessmen reach a certain level of wealth and power and can essentially take over the entire town. It’s how you end up with situations like the Murdaughs.
However you look at it, the overconsolidation of wealth always has negative impscts.
Also a lot of hospitals were not for profit. It may upset the atheist crowd here but they were run by religious organizations as charities. Not that they didn’t make money, but everything was reinvested back into care.
Capitalism ruins everything it touches.
Many of these hospitals were capitalist before the takeover too – they just were beholden to local owners rather than big national firm owners.
Local ownership is a VERY powerful check on the power of capital. Communities can hold sway over owners beyond what is reflected the general ledger of the business. And one of the reasons big national brands are good at out-competing local business is precisely BECAUSE they can ignore these social costs – even externalize them – and reap further profit for the exercise.
Even if you’re anticapitalist as fuck, this is why it is still important to buy and support local business whenever possible. Because the less local the business is, the less it cares about its customers and employees’ welfare.
And when local owners get greedy and want to sell to big firms, it’s very important to hit them with as much social punishment as possible. Friends don’t let friends sell their businesses to hedge funds.
Local ownership can cut both ways. Local businessmen reach a certain level of wealth and power and can essentially take over the entire town. It’s how you end up with situations like the Murdaughs.
However you look at it, the overconsolidation of wealth always has negative impscts.
Also a lot of hospitals were not for profit. It may upset the atheist crowd here but they were run by religious organizations as charities. Not that they didn’t make money, but everything was reinvested back into care.
They also reinvest in their communities, whereas big corporations siphon up all the capital, and abscond.