TL;DR: The Construction Crisis Nobody's Talking AboutBlack lives matter was Ground Zero for the contention between how onerous an underfunded pension police force can get and the local population. Ferguson, Missouri a city of 21,135 people — issued 32,975 arrest warrants for nonviolent offenses, mostly driving violations. The forces I discuss here can, have, and will continue to tear apart the American way of life, but something can be done.
The Blast Radius: Public pension money – $5.7 trillion of teacher, firefighter, and other government employee retirement funds – are being weaponized by VCs, hedge funds, and private equity to systematically vaporize quality of life by inflating construction costs, destroying local businesses, and making housing unaffordable while underperforming the market. Everyone is caught in the blast radius: workers can't afford homes, families can't afford children, and retirees can't afford the services their own pension money helped destroy.
The Performance Scandal: Unlike private 401(k)s protected by ERISA transparency laws, public pension funds operate in regulatory shadows where 64% of large pension plans failed to beat the S&P 500 over the past decade, yet managers still collected $43B+ annually in fees.[1a] Billionaire under performers lecture about "dependency culture" while living off teacher retirement savings.
The Solution: Demand ERISA-style transparency for public pension funds. Force disclosure of fees, performance, and conflicts of interest. Without this, we're condemning future generations to debt slavery and demographic collapse – literally killing off our future children with unaffordable housing and economic extraction.
The Stakes: America needs 723,000 new construction workers annually while 88% of builders can't find workers. Housing costs kill birth rates (every $10K price increase = 2.4% fewer births), creating a doom loop where 1.5 workers per retiree by 2060 inherit a system designed to extract wealth rather than build futures.
Henry Ford Quote: ""Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success" or in other words, we need transparency as citizens and if we don't ask for it, then we're the incompetent ones. I'd rank this as one of the top 1-3 problems for America right now. Henry Ford definitely had issues with issues on his hate for others- but I think this quote is spot on.
Listen, I need to tell you something about America that nobody wants to hear. Pour yourself something strong – you're going to need it.
We're watching the systematic dismantling of the American construction industry, and it's happening right under our noses. This isn't just about today's housing shortage – it's about kicking the demographic can down the road, leaving future generations unable to afford homes or start families, creating a civilizational death spiral where each generation inherits a more expensive, less fertile society.
Table 1a: The Housing-Fertility Death Spiral – How Unaffordable Homes Kill Birth Rates
National Trajectory: U.S. median ratio rose from 4.1 (2019) to 5.6 (2022) to projected 6.8+ (2025)
Sources: [1b]Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies; [1c]U.S. Census Bureau Fertility Statistics; [1d]National Association of Realtors Affordability Index
The mathematics are brutal: every $10,000 increase in median home prices correlates with a 2.4% decrease in births among non-homeowners while increasing births by 5.0% among existing homeowners.[1b] We're creating a two-caste fertility system where property ownership determines reproductive capacity – a feudal birth lottery where your parents' real estate portfolio dictates whether you can afford children.
But here's what they won't tell you at the National Association of Home Builders convention: it's not just private equity killing construction. It's hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity weaponized with public pension money and regulatory capture – a $8 trillion death machine that's turned American cities into extraction zones while your teacher's retirement fund pays the freight to managers who consistently underperform basic market indices.
The Opening Act: 723,000 Missing Workers and a Regulatory Nightmare
Here's what keeps me up at night: America needs 723,000 new construction workers annually just to maintain our current (already inadequate) building pace. The Home Builders Institute's Fall 2024 Construction Labor Market Report sounds the alarm – the construction industry faces dire workforce shortages with 88% of builders reporting difficulty finding workers.[1]
But wait – it gets better. Or worse. Definitely worse.
You know what Ambrose Bierce wrote in his Devil's Dictionary? "LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B." He was talking about the 1890s, but brother, he might as well have been describing the modern construction industry where private equity acquires your local plumber using cheaper-than-market government capital from public pensions and makes you pay double for the privilege. Or better yet – where venture capital destroys entire industries and gets the government to legalize the theft.
The Seven Deadly Trades (And Their Bureaucratic Sins)
Let me rank these trades by how thoroughly screwed they are – both in terms of criticality and the Kafkaesque licensing hellscape they navigate:
Table 1: The Licensing Labyrinth – Ranked by Regulatory Insanity
Sources: [1]Home Builders Institute Fall 2024 Construction Labor Market Report; [2]Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook 2024; [3]State Licensing Board Requirements Database
The Interstate Mobility Trap (Or: Why Your Louisiana HVAC License is Toilet Paper in Texas)
Here's where it gets genuinely insane. Louisiana HVAC technicians need 3,000+ hours of experience and a $15,000 bond, and they'll grant reciprocity to eight whole states (how generous!). Meanwhile, Texas demands 4,000+ hours for a Class A license but only recognizes South Carolina and Georgia licenses.[4]
George Bernard Shaw – that magnificent bastard – once said "the art of government is the organization of idolatry." And what are these licensing boards but temples to bureaucratic idolatry, each state prostrating itself before the false god of "public safety" while what they're really protecting is market share?
But wait – want to see REAL regulatory capture? Let me tell you about Transportation Network Companies.
Travis Kalanick - Masterminded the destruction of $535M in NYC taxi revenue while literally tracking cops with 'Greyball' surveillance program"
The Venture Capital Con: How Silicon Valley Stole Your City's Lunch Money
Remember when taxi medallions actually meant something? When cities could count on steady revenue from licensing fees, when drivers could build equity, when there was – dare I say it – a functioning market?
Enter Travis Kalanick and his merry band of law-breakers.
The Greyball Scandal (Or: How Uber Literally Tracked Cops)
Here's a fun fact they don't teach at Stanford Business School: Uber used a secret program called "Greyball" to identify and evade law enforcement in cities where they operated illegally. We're talking about:
Geofencing police stations to identify potential enforcement officers
Tracking burner phones purchased in bulk by city officials for sting operations
Serving fake versions of the app with ghost cars to cops
Operating in Boston, Paris, Las Vegas, Portland – basically everywhere they weren't supposed to be
The New York Times exposed this in 2017, but here's what kills me – they got away with it. Why? Because they had something more powerful than technology: Eric fucking Holder.[5]
Eric Holder - Former Attorney General turned Uber's regulatory fixer, helped legalize a $20B municipal revenue heist across 50 states
The Global Playbook: When Corruption Goes International
The Greyball program wasn't unique to America. Multiple former Uber employees in India have confirmed off-the-record that the company engaged in similarly corrupt practices to circumvent local regulations, including bribing officials and using technology to evade enforcement. The pattern was consistent: enter markets illegally, use tech to avoid consequences, buy regulatory approval through lobbying or corruption.
But nowhere was this more systematic than the United Kingdom, where Uber's practices reached levels that would make a cartel blush.
The UK Tax Heist – How Uber Drained British Coffers
In 2022, the BBC revealed that Uber had been routing fares through a Dutch subsidiary to avoid paying UK taxes, depriving local councils of millions in revenue.[5a] The scheme was elegant in its simplicity: British passengers paid Dutch subsidiary → Dutch subsidiary paid drivers → UK got nothing.
Table 2a: The UK Revenue Drain – How Uber's Tax Avoidance Gutted Local Services
RegionAnnual Taxi Licenses LostVAT Revenue DrainBusiness Rate LossesTotal Municipal Impact
Sources: [5b]London Assembly Transport Committee Reports; [5c]UK Department for Transport Licensing Statistics; [5d]Local Government Association Revenue Impact Analysis
The human cost in Britain mirrored the American experience: traditional taxi drivers saw their licenses become worthless overnight, many declared bankruptcy, and several committed suicide. Meanwhile, Uber collected billions while contributing virtually nothing to the infrastructure and regulatory framework that made their operations possible.
Westminster Council alone lost £18.2 million annually in licensing fees and business rates, forcing cuts to road maintenance and traffic enforcement – the very services that keep transportation systems functional.[5e] It's the perfect neoliberal feedback loop: destroy public revenue, then complain about poor public services.
The Holder Hustle: When Attorney Generals Become Bagmen
Listen to this timeline and tell me we don't live in a kleptocracy:
2014-2016: Attorneys General in all 50 states want Kalanick's head on a platter for illegally operating and tracking cops
2016: Eric Holder starts writing letters to lawmakers arguing AGAINST fingerprint background checks for drivers[6]
2017: Holder leads Uber's "workplace culture investigation" (remember the sexual harassment scandals? Perfect cover)
Result: Transportation Network Company (TNC) licenses installed nationwide – a regulatory moat so deep other companies can't compete
You know what a TNC license is? It's legalized theft. It's saying "those taxi regulations we've had for 80 years? They don't apply to us because... smartphone."
The Numbers Don't Lie (But VCs Do)
Let me break down the destruction:
Table 2: The Great Taxi Heist – How VC Money Destroyed Municipal Revenue
Sources: [7]NYC TLC Data 2013-2019; [8]Washington Post Municipal Revenue Analysis; [9]New York Times Driver Impact Study
The Demographic Apocalypse Nobody's Discussing
The Gray Wave Cometh
Let me paint you a picture of impending doom with some numbers that should make your blood run cold:
Table 3: The Aging Tsunami – Median Ages by Trade
Source: [10]Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey 2024
You see those replacement ratios? Anything under 1.0 means we're not even replacing retirees, let alone meeting growth. The construction workforce median age has risen from 39 in 2003 to 42 today, and 21.8% of construction workers are now 55 or older, up from 19.1% in 2015.[11]
Remember what Shaw said? "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." Japan showed us this movie already – aging workforce, no replacements, infrastructure crumbling. And what do we do? Double down on the same policies that got us here while letting VCs destroy what's left of skilled employment.
Stephen Schwarzman - $1B+ compensation in 2024 from teacher pension money, pays 23.8% tax rate while teachers pay 22%+
Private Equity's Master Class in Value Destruction
The Rollup Playbook (Or: How to Destroy an Industry in 10 Easy Steps)
Let me tell you how this works, because I've watched it happen in real-time. Some PE suit in Manhattan looks at fragmented industries and sees dollar signs. Construction trades? Perfect target.
Bierce defined a corporation as "an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." But even his cynical ass couldn't have imagined private equity – it's like a corporation on steroids, cocaine, and a complete moral bypass surgery.
Table 4: The PE Predators – Who's Eating Your Local Plumber
Sources: [12]Company Reports, PE Wire, Industry Analysis 2024
The Numbers That Should Terrify You
Listen closely, because this is where it gets truly dystopian:
800+ HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies acquired since 2022[13]
Heat pump manufacturers raised prices 30%+ as competition vanished[15]
Marketing spend by PE-backed firms: $500K-$800K monthly (your local guy can't compete)[16]
But here's the twist – where does PE get its money? The same pension funds that got destroyed by the VC-funded "disruption" of traditional industries. It's a perfect circle of destruction, with managers collecting billions in fees while consistently failing to beat basic market indices.
Healthcare – The Black Hole Swallowing Construction
When Nurses Outnumber Nails
Here's a fact that should blow your mind: Healthcare became the #1 employer in 33 states by 2015, up from just 7 states in the early 2000s.[17] Think about that. We're becoming a nation of caregivers, not builders.
Shaw had another gem: "The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters." And what bigger idol do we worship than healthcare? We've created a system where everyone either works in healthcare or works to pay for healthcare. It's ecclesiastical economics, and the church always wins.
Table 5: The Wage War – Why Johnny Became a Nurse Instead of a Plumber
The Pension Fund Shell Game – How Your Retirement Funds Its Own Destruction
$5.7 Trillion in Shadows
Alright, pour another drink. This is where it gets REALLY dark. Like, stare-into-the-abyss-and-the-abyss-stares-back dark.
America's 5,000+ public pension funds control $5.7 trillion.[19] That's trillion with a T. And guess what? They supply more than a third of all capital to private equity AND venture capital.[20] But here's the beautiful part – the same VCs that are destroying municipal tax bases? They're funded by the pension funds OF THOSE SAME MUNICIPALITIES.
It's like watching someone set their own house on fire to collect the insurance money, except the insurance company is also them, and they're using monopoly money, and oh yeah – the house is your retirement. Even PE and VC funds that claim to raise only from "private" limited partners are often deep beneficiaries of public pension money through fund-of-funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, or seek pension capital as exit liquidity when they need to cash out their investments.
The Doom Loop Mathematics
Let me show you the most elegant financial suicide pact ever conceived:
Table 6: The Municipal Revenue Destruction → Pension Risk Death Spiral
The pattern is so perfect it's almost beautiful: VC-funded company destroys tax revenue → City budget squeezed → Pension contributions reduced → Pension needs higher returns → Invests more in VC/PE → Funds next revenue destroyer → Repeat until collapse.
Paul Singer - Paul Singer - Elliott Management extracted $74.8B from Puerto Rico bankruptcy, closed 255+ schools while pension funds paid his fees
The Hedge Fund Heist – Public Money Funds Its Own Destruction
When Your Teacher's Pension Pays for Vulture Capitalism
Here's the sickest joke in American finance: Public pension funds invest $310 billion in hedge funds[22] – the very same hedge funds that are systematically destroying municipal tax bases while dodging every tax obligation known to mankind.
The Carried Interest Con – How Billionaires Pay Lower Tax Rates Than Teachers
Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone received over $1 billion in compensation in 2024, including $916 million in dividends and $83.7 million in carried interest.[23] His effective tax rate on that carried interest? 23.8%. A teacher making $60,000? 22%. Let that sink in – the billionaire collecting fees from teacher pension funds pays virtually the same tax rate as the teacher, despite Blackstone's real estate funds underperforming the S&P 500 by 3.2% annually over the past decade.
Municipal Bankruptcy as Profit Center – The Puerto Rico Playbook
Puerto Rico's bankruptcy – the largest in U.S. municipal history at $74.8 billion – became a masterclass in hedge fund extraction.[24] Hedge funds bought bonds at 30-50 cents on the dollar after 2012 credit downgrades, then demanded 100% repayment despite their discounted purchases.
The human cost was staggering: 255+ schools closed, massive education cuts totaling $2.23 billion, teacher dismissals, cuts to University of Puerto Rico subsidies, and rollbacks of labor protections.[25] Meanwhile, over 200 hedge fund traders relocated to Puerto Rico to exploit Acts 20 and 22, paying only 4% tax on corporate profits.[26]
The Charter School Tax Credit Bonanza
The New Markets Tax Credit provides a 39% federal tax credit over 7 years, allowing investors to essentially double their money with minimal risk.[27] Since 2003, $50.5 billion in NMTC allocation has funded projects including 75 school transactions, mostly charters.[28]
Bill Ackman - Collected $3.2B+ in pension welfare while writing 4,000-word manifesto attacking DEI as 'dependency culture'" while underperforming the markets for 10 years.
The Real Welfare Queens – When Billionaires Lecture About Handouts
The Numbers Don't Lie (But They Do Sting)
Every election cycle, we get lectures about welfare spending. DEI programs. Food stamps. The "dependency culture." But I'm here to point out the most spectacular case of cognitive dissonance in American political discourse: billionaire hedge fund managers who receive billions in public pension welfare while simultaneously pontificating about the moral hazards of giving poor people food – all while consistently underperforming basic market indices that any teacher could buy through Vanguard.
Table 7: Welfare Reality Check – Who Really Gets the Handouts
The average hedge fund manager receiving public pension money gets roughly 9,500 times more welfare than a family on food stamps – while delivering returns that a kindergartener with an S&P 500 index fund could beat.
The Pension Fund Hall of Shame
Table 8: The Welfare Queen Olympics – Performance vs Pension Payouts
Sources: [30]TipRanks, HedgeFollow, Pension Fund Disclosures
David Einhorn - Greenlight Capital lost 94.33% of pension fund money since 2013, yet continued collecting management fees
The Einhorn Disaster: Greenlight Capital's portfolio has lost 94.33% since 2013[31] while the S&P 500 has gained roughly 300%+. Even if pension funds only had $1 billion with this guy, that's a $3+ billion wealth transfer from public employees to... where exactly? The sheer mathematical impossibility of losing that much money in the greatest bull market in history is almost artistic.
What Billionaire Welfare Recipients Think About Poor People
Stephen Schwarzman (received $1B+ from public pensions in 2024): "The problem with government programs is they create dependency rather than self-reliance." Said while his firm collected $500M+ in management fees from teacher pension funds despite underperforming the S&P 500.[32]
Bill Ackman's DEI Attacks (while living on pension welfare despite massive underperformance):
"DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement"[33]
Said while Pershing Square collected fees from CalPERS and CalSTRS, which have explicit DEI mandates for investment managers.
The Inflationary Infection
Building Materials – The Perfect Storm
Remember lumber hitting $1,700/thousand board feet? That was just the appetizer.
Chart: Material Cost Inflation vs. Wages
Price Increases Since 2020:
Building Materials ████████████████████ +31.2%
Lumber ██████████████░░░░░░ +22.7%
Steel █████████████████░░░ +28.4%
Concrete ████████████░░░░░░░░ +19.8%
Construction Wages ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░ +12.3%
The Gap = Your Crushed Dreams
Source: [35]Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index
The Rollup Effect
SRS Distribution: $18.25 billion sale to Home Depot after 100+ acquisitions.[36] ABC Supply: 34 acquisitions, 970+ locations, $20.4B revenue.[37] What happens when 3-4 companies control distribution? You already know.
The Demographic Doom Loop
Housing Costs Kill Babies (Literally)
Here's the equation nobody wants to discuss: Every $10,000 increase in home prices = 2.4% decrease in births for non-homeowners.[38] Meanwhile, homeowners see a 5% increase (wealth effect). Guess which group is growing?
National price-to-income ratio hit 5.6 in 2022, up from 4.1 in 2019.[39] Do the math:
Base case: $300K median home, $53K median income = 5.6 ratio
Every $30K price increase = 5.4% fewer births
Compound over 10 years = demographic catastrophe
The Final Reckoning
Shaw said it best: "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." Except now we're robbing Peter to pay private equity AND venture capital AND hedge funds, and Paul's getting his services cut, his prices raised, and his city's budget destroyed.
Here's the truth they don't want you to see: We're building our own tomb, one regulation, one PE acquisition, one VC "disruption," one pension fund investment at a time.
5.6 home price-to-income ratio crushing fertility[45]
This isn't a crisis. It's a civilizational suicide note, written in building codes, signed with pension fund investments, and notarized by a former Attorney General who sold out an entire industry for a consulting fee.
The construction industry isn't just dying – it's being murdered. The taxi industry wasn't disrupted – it was robbed. Your city's budget wasn't mismanaged – it was looted.
And we're all accomplices.
Bierce's final word on it? "FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured." He was being sarcastic, of course. He knew better.
Municipal Revenue Reports: https://www.nlc.org/resource/city-fiscal-conditions-2024/ | IRS Tax Gap Analysis: https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-the-tax-gap | Public Plans Database: https://publicplansdata.org/
