Lambs to the slaughter.

“It’s not that easy to make money out of emptying anal glands.”

Interesting article in the Economist on what is happening to vet practice in the UK. The march of the corporates and private equity firms buying up vet practices from vets who want to get out (recognise the cry of the professional?). The plans are “rationalisation”, and then resale at a higher multiple of income in a few years time (well, to be correct, EBITDA which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — Wikipedia has more on it here). This is essentially capital doing what capital always does in a world driven by financialisation. The caveat is that for this Ponzi scheme speculation to work, there has to be an end buyer. The Economist, as ever fills in any gaps in logic with the usual magic variables:

As private-equity firms support the consolidation of smaller vet practices, the latter’s productivity should improve. Bigger firms can provide better salaries and more support to vets.

Well, that’s all right then — you just insert the bullshit variable. We are told:

Partly this is because young vets have high student debts; many drop out of the profession because the pay is not good enough. They are also demoralised; suicide rates among vets in America are at least twice the national average, and in Britain, almost four times.

The problem is that the money has to come from somewhere: the animal owners; or the vets (as in salaries); and also accommodate the capitalists’ profit. Downward pressures all round I guess — and wait and see what happens to productivity when you are an employee rather than running your own business. I doubt animal ownership is going to get cheaper.

The Susskinds have written elsewhere on the ‘Future of the Professions” but everywhere I look — dentistry, law, medicine — you see some common themes (no sunlit uplands). Lambs to the slaughter.