> This was my point. A vampire, mythologically, can compel a human to obey it: despite the human realizing that it'd really be a dumb idea to let something suck out all of your blood, it's still just really hard to resist letting the vampire do that. There is, I suppose, what might in modern language be called a "superstimulus"—something which causes some part of your brain to override the rest, despite the rest of the brain screaming "no."
You're viewing this as somehow negative. The investors gain by selling, they don't lose. There is no "sucking of blood" that occurs.
> Likewise, these hedge funds offer the ultimate opportunity to make a change that is good for investors at the expense of employees.
Employees are often part shareholders at these companies. They gain as well.
> I've never heard of a co-op agreeing to be acquired by a hedge fund; have you?
Just found out about the co-op group in the UK from reading this article. It seems like they are a member based co-op vs. an employee owned one and it looks like they were shedding their banking division to isolate the loss from the whole financial collapse. It does seem like employee owned companies would do more to preserve their jobs vs. scrap the business for short term profit. So while one could argue that some sort of reform of this would help buffer the pain being inflicted on employees moving towards more egalitarian models of ownership would seem to be a better goal in the long run.
> Likewise, these hedge funds offer the ultimate opportunity to make a change that is good for investors at the expense of employees.
Employees are often part shareholders at these companies. They gain as well.
> I've never heard of a co-op agreeing to be acquired by a hedge fund; have you?
Try a google search, http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41344946