Private equity got their tentacles in medical debt.

This is NOT good news: private equity is into debt collection, specifically medical debt collection.

Article can be found here.

Last week the news blew up with the reaction to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO and the shocking glee from some of the public. So, we already know people are angry at health insurance companies.

It has been reported that chief executives are fearful. I don’t blame them.

Connecting some dots

Let’s connect some dots.

• Private equity is involved in medical debt collection, really driving people into larger debts.
• It has been said that private equity has been involved in buying up houses, thus making it difficult for people to own homes at reasonable prices, especially starter homes. They turn around and rent out those houses.
• We already saw the scary reaction to the execution of a healthcare insurance CEO. People are angry.
• Looking forward, if tariffs are implemented, inflation will go up, not down, thus making people more miserable.
• Looking forward, it is said that the mass deportations, which we are certain will happen, will mean no labor to do the agricultural or construction work, raising prices and possibly making some food unavailable.
• According to one economist (I think he is some kind of economist), the combination of tariffs and mass deportations will mean that the average Americans “will not be able to afford basic goods”. Yikes!
• Looking even further out, if the DOGE leaders, who basically represent the oligarchs (a multibillionaire and a multimillionaire), get to do cuts in government services, the fear is that the cuts will be in the area of social security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ aids, as well as a large swath of the government employees. Large unemployment and no safety net.

Combine all of the dots and we are looking at a very, very, very angry population.

American Revolution vs French Revolution

As I mentioned last week, people are already talking about the French Revolution and how we should learn from them.

I don’t know why but I get a sense that the French type of revolution was way bloodier than the American Revolution, although there were deaths in both revolutions. I do remember a painting of some guy (maybe Jacobin guy) with his throat slit in the bathtub. That image left an indelible mark in my memory.

So, I checked with Google and got the following:

The French Revolution was significantly bloodier than the American Revolution, with the most violent period of the French Revolution, known as the “Reign of Terror,” resulting in a much higher number of casualties compared to the American Revolutionary War. 

Key points to consider:

• Scale of violence:The French Revolution involved widespread executions by guillotine, particularly during the Reign of Terror, leading to a much larger death toll than the American Revolution. 
• Social upheaval:The French Revolution aimed to drastically change the social structure of France, leading to greater internal conflict and violence compared to the American Revolution, which primarily focused on gaining independence from British rule. 
• Casualty numbers:While exact figures vary, estimates suggest that the French Revolution resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, while the American Revolution saw significantly fewer casualties. 

Google AI Overview

So, I was right! I learned my history! My gut feel for why the French Revolution was bloodier was the killings of the noble without “due diligence”. The revolutionaries just killed them because they were part of the nobility. Maybe some nobility were actually trying to help the regular people?

There can be “good” wealthy people and “bad” wealthy people.

Here’s an interesting factoid from a poster in Quora:

The French revolutionaries killed an estimated 17,000 of the nobility within the first month for no reason other than because they were nobility. Most were killed publicly by guillotine. It’s hard to imagine the amount of blood that would have been in the streets. Under the leadership of Robespierre Another 40,000 people were killed because he ruled that they were enemies of the revolution. He himself was publicly executed in 1794 to bring an end to what has ever since been referred to as a reign of terror. With failure of the revolution, the country was left virtually leaderless, a situation that was taken advantage of by the rise of Napoleon who went on to conquer the world. So I guess you have to say that the French certainly had the largest short-term consequences.

Wayne Arnold, Quora

But authorized history indicates that the revolution executed commoners too. I’m under the impression that the revolution was sort of a quasi-civil war because of internal division of society in regard to the revolution.

Here’s the link to the site with fuller historical details.

Next few years will be miserable

Based upon economists’ assessment of the impact of the tariffs and the mass deportations, it seems that the next few years will be miserable. Add to that the strutting oligarchs on the world stage, I cannot help but fear that people will get extremely angry.

We already have a few mentioning French Revolution and lionizing the guy who executed the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

If the dire assessments turn out to be true, I can easily see people being provoked into violence. The problem is such violence never solve things and can easily lead to deaths of many innocent people, a la the French Revolution.

It is not something to embark on willy nilly.

I imagine if we did have a revolution, the regular people would not win. Just look to Syria or Gaza. Assad finally had to flee Syria after 14 years since the initial spark of bloody rebellion. The Gazans had no freedom since their one and only election in 2007 and they now face dire consequences from their war with Israel.

I don’t want us to go through the same thing, but I fear we will.

Revolutions seem to equal nasty business with few winners.

French Revolution…Bolshevik Revolution…Arab Rising…

Do these revolutions sound like a picnic in the park?