[bondarchuk]

I don't get it. If pensions stopped existing, would people stop doing PE even though it's profitable? If it is possible to get outsized returns "because pensions need them" then isn't somebody gonna notice and get those returns anyway, pensions or not?

[spyckie2]

Slavery is profitable. People only stopped doing it when it was perceived as immoral.

Lots of things are profitable but immoral. People will do crazy immoral and illegal stuff for money, but we outlaw and slander the more abusive stuff, like monopolies and such.

If it wasn't pensions that were funding PE, I'm sure PEs would get a lot more criticism and would not be allowed to do what they do.

[vasco]

Misconception, slavery is not profitable if you do it in your own country with a massive base because those people aren't economically active and don't buy much with their non existing money. In fact many historians argue slavery ended due to capitalism, not morals.

Yes you can pick up cotton at a lower labor cost with slaves, but you can't charge the slaves rent, sell them useless clothes, tax them, etc.

[slibhb]

The idea that slavery is a free lunch that is only banned on moral grounds is wrong.

Slavery is bad economics. If you want your economy to grow, paying workers is not bad. Economic growth isn't zero sum.

[somelamer567]

Capitalists are selfish, and have short planning horizons. For a capitalist, slavery is absolutely rational. The only reason why they don't do it today is because it's illegal.

[Nasrudith]

Which is why it was the pseudoaristocraric south which provided the main source of abolitionists and the first to abolish it. Is what I would say in opposite world.

[slibhb]

Selfish capitalists want to accumulate capital and grow the economy. Slavery is a bad strategy for achieving these ends. There is ample historical evidence of this, and it also lines up with mainstream economic theory.

People who argue otherwise simply cannot escape their zero-sum worldview.

[mbesto]

> would people stop doing PE even though it's profitable?

No but there would be a lot less PE dry powder available. To the parent's point - there is currently a trillion dollars in dry powder that is allocated to acquiring businesses. If that trillion dollars drys up then less businesses get acquired - it's that simple.

[subtlejellyfish]

Maybe... but if pensions are gone, how many entities still exist that will commit to locking up billions of dollars for 5+ years?

[pphysch]

Yeah, it's like blaming drug users primarily for the violence of the drug trade. Sorry, but the drugs came first.