The best defense of private equity is that this industry does both good things and bad things.
Sometimes private equity firms rescue troubled companies, pump in new capital and management talent, and make them better and more productive -- saving or creating jobs along the way.
Other times, though, today's LBO artists buy companies, load them with debt, suck them dry, and accelerate their path to bankruptcy. The bad things private equity firms do are pretty bad; just read Josh Kosmen's book, The Buyout of America.