You’ve probably seen the signs without realizing what they actually mean. Maybe your favorite local grocery store suddenly feels a bit more "off"—the shelves are thinner, the staff is stressed, and the prices are creeping up faster than inflation. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that your local newspaper, the one that used to cover high school football and city hall scandals, has basically turned into a ghost town of wire copy and ads.
Most people blame the "changing economy" or "the internet." Megan Greenwell says we’re looking at the wrong culprit.
In her book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, released in June 2025, Greenwell argues that a specific brand of financial engineering is hollowing out American life from the inside. It’s not just a business story. It's a "your-life-is-changing-and-it-sucks" story. Honestly, once you see the pattern she describes, it’s hard to unsee it.
The Megan Greenwell Bad Company Argument: What’s Really Going On?
Private equity is a term that sounds incredibly boring, which is exactly how the industry likes it. These firms basically pool money from big investors—think pension funds and university endowments—to buy companies.
The goal? Make them "efficient."
But as Greenwell explains, "efficiency" is often just a polite word for strip-mining. The firms use what's called a leveraged buyout. They buy a company using a massive amount of debt, but here’s the kicker: they put that debt on the company's books, not their own.
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It’s like you buying a house but making your neighbor responsible for the mortgage. If the company can’t pay back the debt because the interest rates are too high or the business is struggling? The private equity firm still gets its management fees. The workers, however, get pink slips.
The Four Faces of the Fallout
Greenwell doesn't just talk about spreadsheets. She spends years following four specific people whose lives were essentially detonated by these deals.
- The Toys "R" Us Supervisor: Liz was so loyal to the toy giant she actually had the mascot tattooed on her. When private equity firms KKR, Bain Capital, and Vornado bought the company, they loaded it with billions in debt. Liz didn't just lose a job; she lost her retirement and had to fight for basic severance pay while the executives walked away with millions.
- The Rural Doctor: This is where it gets scary. Greenwell digs into how private equity has moved into healthcare. When a firm buys a hospital, they often sell the land the hospital sits on and lease it back. This creates an immediate cash windfall for the investors but leaves the hospital with a massive monthly rent bill. The result? Fewer nurses, cheaper supplies, and worse outcomes for patients.
- The Local Journalist: Greenwell knows this world intimately. She was the editor-in-chief of Deadspin when it was bought by Great Hill Partners. She eventually resigned in a very public, very viral blaze of glory because the new owners wanted the site to "stick to sports" while gutting the very things that made it profitable and beloved. In her book, she looks at how this same "gut and flip" strategy has turned local news into a shell of itself.
- The Affordable Housing Tenant: Ever wonder why your apartment complex is falling apart but the rent is sky-high? Greenwell profiles a tenant in a complex owned by a private equity firm. These firms are now some of the biggest landlords in the country. Their playbook involves cutting maintenance to the bone while using algorithms to hike rents to the absolute maximum the market can bear.
Why Private Equity is "Bad Company" for Everyone
You might think, "I don't work for a private equity-owned company, so why should I care?"
Because they own everything.
They own the daycare center where you drop off your kids. They own the nursing home where your parents live. They own the company that makes the voting machines. They even own the rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums (at least, they did for a while).
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Greenwell argues that this isn't just a "bad apple" situation. It's the system working exactly as it was designed. The "2-and-20" fee structure—where firms take a 2% management fee and 20% of profits—incentivizes them to take massive risks. If the risk pays off, they’re billionaires. If it fails and the company goes bankrupt, they still keep the 2% and move on to the next target.
It's a "heads I win, tails you lose" game.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think private equity is the same as venture capital. It isn't.
Venture capital is usually about betting on new, risky ideas (like a tech startup). Private equity is about buying established, "boring" businesses that have assets—real estate, equipment, or loyal customers—that can be liquidated or leveraged.
Another misconception? That these firms save failing businesses.
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Greenwell points out that while some companies are indeed struggling, private equity often targets healthy companies with high "recession-proof" value. Healthcare is the biggest target right now. People will always need doctors, which makes it a perfect "extractive vehicle" for firms looking for steady cash flow to pay off those leveraged debts.
Actionable Insights: How to Protect Yourself
Honestly, it feels a bit like fighting a giant, but there are things you can do to navigate a world increasingly owned by Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company subjects.
- Check the ownership of your healthcare provider. Before you choose a primary care doctor or a nursing home, Google the parent company. If it’s owned by a private equity firm (like Apollo, KKR, or Blackstone), keep in mind that their primary fiduciary duty is to their investors, not necessarily your health.
- Support "Indie" institutions. Whether it's a local credit union, a neighborhood grocery store, or an independent news outlet, these organizations usually have their debt on their own books and are more accountable to the community.
- Watch your pension. If you have a 401(k) or a pension through a union or the city, check where that money is being invested. Many public pensions are the primary "fuel" for private equity. Activism at the board level can force these funds to reconsider where they put their capital.
- Demand transparency. Support legislation that requires private equity firms to disclose more about their operations. Right now, they operate in a "black box," making it nearly impossible for workers or regulators to see a collapse coming before it’s too late.
Private equity has reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, often at the direct expense of the stability we used to take for granted. Understanding the "Bad Company" playbook is the first step in deciding whether we want our communities to be treated like assets to be flipped or places to actually live.
Keep an eye on the ownership structures of the businesses you rely on. It’s the only way to know if you’re a customer or just collateral.