this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 21 points 8 months ago (6 children)

One of the challenges is of course that the wealthy don't get paid. They own and control assets that appreciate in value.

What if we ended private ownership of businesses. I don't mean ending ownership of businesses, but that every business became publicly tradeable. No more private ownership of businesses.

I'm not actually advocating this (yet), just curious what people think would happen if we did this.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The same as now

The people that own it privately will have controlling public shares. Can’t force them to sell at a given value and if you did they would just have a diverse portfolio that they swap between each other

I think finding a private company that brings people the levels we are talking about here are not an issue

Profit sharing works better, after x earned, everything is divided up between workers

[–] Kushia@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Taxing profits is a good idea but they'll figure out some creative accounting to avoid making them.

I think we just need to straight up take ownership of a portion their shares that increases based on how little tax they are paying.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

What i said is closer to what you are saying than it is to taxes

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Enshittifcation would be mandatory via forced infinite growth to profit shareholders.

Instead, we can make the employees up to middle management and lower own a minimum of 60% shares of every company that way they're not constantly getting fucked and they actually have a voice.

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 2 points 8 months ago

I would have 100% of voting shares be inalienably attached to all workers in the firm. Non-voting preferred stock can continue to be free floating property rights @canada

[–] Aux@lemmy.world -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If employees own 60% then they should invest 60% of a company capital.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They are. With their time, whether that probationary or goes away if you do + some other obvious grey areas. This whole "business owners are taking all the risk so they have more money they can ever spend" nonsense is costing us, costing the government, and costing the environment. Shit has got to go.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I wasn't born with money stolen via exploitation. Not an option for me and 95% of the planet.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You don't need much money to open a business. You just need to pay a small fee to register a company, anyone can manage that.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does this small fee include cushion money for not turning a profit in years?

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

On average, businesses do not even break even for 18 months, and don't turn a profit for 2 or 3 years, up to 5 for restaurants if they don't fail. How should I pay for things during this time? What happens if I fail, where does the money come from to take care of any debts from taking out loans for the business as that would be the only way for me to achieve the amount of money required to do this?

It's not the same playing field, and to act like it is is just ignorant.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Agreed, but it could be better everyone and I hope you also strive to make that happen. Take care

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

What if we ended private ownership of businesses. I don't mean ending ownership of businesses, but that every business became publicly tradeable. No more private ownership of businesses

Not sure if that would really lead to any significant change. Most billionaires "own" publicly traded companies. In fact, most billionaires became billionaires when their companies initiated an IPO.

The problem is that rich people can use their stock as collateral for huge untaxable loans. What we need to do is figure out a way to classify and tax these loans without taxing things like mortgages.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

imho I think this is the wrong way to go - there are some companies out there that continue to exist and thrive because they're not jerked around by shareholders. Valve, being a great example.

tax the fuck out of every asset imho, but no private business? eehhhh extreme solution that doesn't really fix the problems.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

What if we ended private ownership of businesses. I don't mean ending ownership of businesses, but that every business became publicly tradeable. No more private ownership of businesses.

There's something to be said for mandatory stock awards to all employees (with no contractor sub-contractor loopholes) calculated to enforce a controlling interest among current staff.

Of course, arguably, I just described a union with more steps.

Edit: I think this won't necessarily need to be mandatory, after current shareholders wise up that their current crop of CEO's aren't actually serving their interests.

But, if it works, there's an argument to be made for making something mandatory to set a baseline expectation for human decency.

Which I suppose amounts to crowd-sourcing to staff things not currently handled by OSHA.

Probably better to limit ownership to directly interested parties, like workers and maybe customers