Comment on Modern problems require modern solutions

db2@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• Quokka@quokk.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Daycare is a multibillion dollar industry. The previous company I worked at here in Australia was owned by big an American private investment firm (Bain Capital).

  My centres company owned about 70 centres under them, and their owners had many other childcare corporations they owned across the globe.

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  • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Bain Capital? The Bain Capital? Ugh.

    In his 2009 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, Josh Kosman described Bain Capital as “notorious for its failure to plough profits back into its businesses,” being the first large private-equity firm to derive a large fraction of its revenues from corporate dividends and other distributions.

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    • Quokka@quokk.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yes that Bain Capital.

      Childcare in Australia is subsidised by the government, so the childcare centres raise fees and every few years the government raises the subsidy so parents can afford it. Once it’s affordable the centres raise fees again, it’s a vicious cycle.

      I read the meeting minutes from when they bought us out and it was all about how they struck gold with free government money. They didn’t give a shit about the children, just how much tax payer money they could take out of our country.

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  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    At least they don’t turn their charges into fertiliser, in the way that private equity-owned veterinary chains do.

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• slaacaa@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Orphan Crushing Machine LLC

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• jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It’s like the matrix, but for children.

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• OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Oh yeah, it’s perfect for corporate America. If fits the bill perfectly for abuse through corporate consolidation:

  • working class people NEED it to survive
  • workforce theoretically doesn’t require an advanced degree so is therefore ripe for exploitation

  These two things together are the holy grail of American capitalism because it means if a handful of companies control all the daycares then they can screw over both labor and consumers through corporate consolidation.

  We know the government will never break up the conglomerates, so that leaves unions to hold the ghouls accountable in which case they just close any daycare that unionizes, look for scabs, or try to replace humans with AI.

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• EtherWhack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Probably for KinderCare or something similar to them

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• ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’m honestly slightly confused by this response. Any business type will end up with some that do well, open more locations and get some manner of central office. It’ll inevitably be some manner of corporation because that just how we structure any business beyond small. The daycare is where the kids go and the office their handles local stuff like contact forms and medical notes, and corporate office handles billing and such.

  Like, yeah it’s weird for something as personal as childcare to be a franchise, but no one gets too worked up about corporate pharmacies and that’s literally trusting a stranger giving you a bottle of drugs to eat not to hand you the poison they keep a few feet over.

  It’s weird and kinda dystopian, but I’m confused by the shock.

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  • flandish@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    because if it involves a profit motive it involves exploitation inherent in this motive. to apply that exploitation to a service that provides care for children would mean there is a nonzero chance the place is not prioritizing child care and safety over profit.

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    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I mean, I get that. As I said, it’s the surprise that confuses me. I understand “ugh, why are we putting profit in _____”. It’s that someone would go “whoah, hold on, people are running daycares for money?”

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    • jfrnz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Literally every paid daycare has a profit motive. The issue you take is with scale, not motive.

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      • Lund3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Wrong. In the north the daycare are owned by the government and are not for profit. They are still payed but without profit motive

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• someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Daycares aren’t Mom and Pop shops anymore. They are chains.

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