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We’re talking like this is some anomaly. This is the endgame of unregulated capitalism - squeezing more, squeezing harder.

And those who don’t/won’t squeeze as hard get outcompeted - a race to the bottom.

Toys-R-Us is a telling story. The PE acquired the company for >1bn USD and then put 5bn of debt onto their balance sheet.

So the company had to pay interest and PE management fees until it finally collapsed.

Remember, the 5bn put on their balance sheet was the debt that was used to acquire them.

It's like taking out a mortgage to buy a house, and then somehow dodging the payments by assigning the debt to the house itself.