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Tag Archives: private equity

Corporate Skiing

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Private equity strikes again. How a corporate duopoly is ruining skiing. By Gordon Laforge in Slate.

“. . . accessible for whom? For a recreational skier of means in Brooklyn who can front a thousand bucks well before the start of the season, a pass does indeed open up new possibilities. The story is different, though, for a working dad in Denver who wants to take his kid up to Breckenridge for a day in late December to try out skiing. He will find that everything that is not a season pass is criminally expensive. Parking is $20; his lift ticket $251 (online—at the window it’ll be $279); basic rental gear $78; burger, fries, and a Gatorade for lunch $35; end-of-day Coors Light $8; and $418 for the kid’s rental, ticket, and group lesson (at least the lesson includes lunch). All in, an $800-plus day.”

What To Do About Gas Prices

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Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post argues neither major political party has a serious plan to deal with inflation overall or gas prices specifically. So the choice is between the two parties agendas. “So what do Republicans stand for?” she asks.

“Their national leaders won’t say, even when asked directly; their state-level rising stars are mostly focused on fighting with Mickey Mouse and drag queens. But if you look at GOP actions taken over the past several years, including when they had unified control of the federal government, you get a sense of what Republicans are likely to prioritize.

Mostly, Republicans seem to care about tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. They want to find ways to repeal Obamacare, or otherwise reduce access to health care by (for example) slashingMedicaid.

They care about installing judges who will roll back reproductive rights.

They care about supporting a president who used the powers of the state to further his own political and financial interests, rather than those of the American public he was sworn to serve.

They care about supporting a presidency whose few purported diplomatic achievements, in retrospect, look largely like an excuse to meet potential investors who might fund Trump aides’ new private equity endeavors.

They care about defending, at all costs, a president who cheered on the mob seeking to hang his own vice president.

And they care about undermining the integrity of our election system and overturning the will of the voters, if and when vote tallies don’t go their way.”

In other words, the remote possibility of slightly cheaper gas could come with very high costs to our democracy and the common good.