The Enshittification of America

Richard Lowe never intended to write about American business decline. As a technology director at Trader Joe's for two decades and later a premier ghostwriter, he was perfectly positioned to observe how businesses really work behind the quarterly reports and marketing messages. What he discovered kept him awake at night. The same private equity playbook was destroying one industry after another with methodical precision. Airlines that once made flying feel special now optimize for passenger misery. Department stores that anchored downtown districts became real estate extraction plays. Local newspapers that held mayors accountable got gutted by hedge funds that wouldn't recognize journalism if it audited their books. This systematic transformation represents the "enshittification" of American commerce. Companies don't randomly fail anymore. They get deliberately degraded through financial engineering that prioritizes extraction over service, quarterly performance over long-term value creation, and shareholder returns over customer satisfaction. Lowe examines twelve industries to reveal the consistent patterns: how private equity loads businesses with debt, cuts everything that makes them competitive, extracts maximum cash, then walks away from the wreckage. He exposes why some businesses escaped this fate and provides a practical framework for rebuilding American commerce around stewardship instead of strip-mining. Drawing from his unique dual perspective as both systems builder and corporate storyteller, Lowe shows how we can choose markets that serve communities over markets that serve extraction. The tools exist, the examples exist, and the knowledge exists. We just need the will to admit that treating human beings like optimization targets isn't just bad business-it's wrong.