Defenders of the private equity industry cast it as a bold force driving economic dynamism. But its record of destroying public services is no accident: private equity is essentially an elite project to profit from asset-stripping.

This is little consolation, though. The real paradox is that much of the money with which private equity has run companies into the ground, laid off workers, and turned essential services into cash cows actually comes from pension funds and university endowments: that is, institutions of the welfare state originally intended to provide workers with a safety net. Not only has private equity made the life of many of them significantly worse; if and when it goes bust, it will be regular people who will ultimately bear the cost. Better to dismantle the system before that happens.