The government doesn't do anything good but drop bombs and win wars and we haven't exactly been good at that recently . This is a terrible idea.

BCG Disciple said:

---

How do they get the ownership? Shareholders give it to them? Or we borrow more to buy it? Raise taxes to buy stocks?

Literally in any scenario, the money belongs to the people and should go back to the people well before deciding to invest our money. Out of principle.

---

Would be interesting if you could pay your taxes in stock.

Maybe allowing start-ups and young companies to pay taxes in stock would be interesting? Start-ups don't have income taxes, but often pay other taxes, like payroll taxes. Allowing a company to use something like 10% of their stock to pay for taxes might be interesting..

1) Don't make it complicit, only an option.
2) Require a 3rd party valuation at fair market value. Minority equity positions in privately held start-up companies are very cheaply valued. The US government would be getting a good deal.
3) It wouldn't be worth the hassle of paying to value the stock until the tax bill got sufficiently large that most start-ups wouldn't participate until the beginning of the growth stage.
4) Makes the US government a kind of incubator, providing cash flow relief to young companies.
5) Restrict the stock sale by the US government for 10 years, and then, can only be sold into a public market or through a public auction.

Interesting though experiment.

Still no. We don't need the government to be meaningful owners of public corporations. The moral hazards are just too real and too deep.

Dan Scott said:

---

The federal government participates little in the upside though because we've created a monster tax code where the effective tax rate on corps is low meanwhile their stock prices goes up bigly at a much faster rate than any tax collection. Meanwhile we the people must pay taxes to support the system that creates the monster valuations in the market that foreigners are profiting off of.

---

Just a reminder….all corporate taxes wind up as a tax on individuals. Only individuals pay taxes….through reduced dividends, increased prices, etc. Eventually, there is an individual missing $$ that has wound up in the hands of wasteful politicians. You can pretend that raising taxes on companies somehow is magic money, but it is not….the tax is eventually paid by individuals…often had-working families.

Now we are begging for tyranny…..Kissinger is so proud

Sounds too governmenty.

If anyone ever got serious about fixing the government finances, they already have the two levers they need.
Collect more taxes and spend less money.

How would they get this equity position? Buy it? With what? Just print more money…defeats the purpose. Size it?

I do think social security needs to be partly invested in equities. That's a long overdue move that could help bolster that system.

Just stupid

my initial reaction like many is not only no but hell no. however, there is one and only way i would contemplate this.

if government shares had zero and i mean zero voting rights, then maybe there is way.

I think the OPs point is based on a decent observation, that our current system seems tilted heavily to favor big companies (and by extension their shareholders). The government buying/taking an equity stake could help return some balance to the "people", but that is the wrong prescription for this issue.

chris1515 said:

---

I think the OPs point is based on a decent observation, that our current system seems tilted heavily to favor big companies (and by extension their shareholders). The government buying/taking an equity stake could help return some balance to the "people", but that is the wrong prescription for this issue.

---

You know....there are a few countries that have figured out that "big companies" are the geese laying the golden eggs. To the surprise of many, Denmark is one of those countries. They make it very easy to start a business, very easy to hire and fire employees, and do not have excessive taxes on corporations. Instead, they tax the individuals heavily. They have figured out that thriving, profitable companies with employees provide great jobs and those jobs keep the welfare state from not only having to support those employees...but the heavy taxes on those employees pay for the support of those without great jobs. I speak from the experience of starting and operating a significant business in Denmark.

At the end of the day...only individuals pay taxes/tariffs/etc....companies are only the vehicles thru which the government taxes "the people." If you want to kill the economy and reduce standard of living....make life more difficult for "big companies." If you want to grow the standard of living...make life less difficult for "big companies."

Not a whole lot we can learn from little old Denmark...but by gosh we can sure observe their form of socialism and see that even in such extreme socialism "big companies" are what increase the people's standards of living. Long-term, standards of living only increase with increased productivity...and that takes capital and efficient operation.

Ag87H2O said:

---

So the federal government should print more money and go deeper into debt so they can buy the stock of American corporations? No thanks.

I can see it now. Manipulating stock prices with big purchases and selloffs, trying to influence companies' policies through stock price manipulation based purely on political ideology.

Absolutely no way.

---

Why dabble in fascism when you can go full bore? The government would end up with full control of "private" industry.

HarleySpoon said:

---

chris1515 said:

---

I think the OPs point is based on a decent observation, that our current system seems tilted heavily to favor big companies (and by extension their shareholders). The government buying/taking an equity stake could help return some balance to the "people", but that is the wrong prescription for this issue.

---

You know....there are a few countries that have figured out that "big companies" are the geese laying the golden eggs. To the surprise of many, Denmark is one of those countries. They make it very easy to start a business, very easy to hire and fire employees, and do not have excessive taxes on corporations. Instead, they tax the individuals heavily. They have figured out that thriving, profitable companies with employees provide great jobs and those jobs keep the welfare state from not only having to support those employees...but the heavy taxes on those employees pay for the support of those without great jobs. I speak from the experience of starting and operating a significant business in Denmark.

At the end of the day...only individuals pay taxes/tariffs/etc....companies are only the vehicles thru which the government taxes "the people." If you want to kill the economy and reduce standard of living....make life more difficult for "big companies." If you want to grow the standard of living...make life less difficult for "big companies."

Not a whole lot we can learn from little old Denmark...but by gosh we can sure observe their form of socialism and see that even in such extreme socialism "big companies" are what increase the people's standards of living. Long-term, standards of living only increase with increased productivity...and that takes capital and efficient operation.

---

All on board with low/no corporate taxes here. Another great thing to do would be to stop heavily taxing people's income as well so that they can start the next great company when the old giant behemoths become too big and too protected and need to be replaced by newer, smarter, less entrenched companies.

American Hardwood said:

---

HarleySpoon said:

---

chris1515 said:

---

I think the OPs point is based on a decent observation, that our current system seems tilted heavily to favor big companies (and by extension their shareholders). The government buying/taking an equity stake could help return some balance to the "people", but that is the wrong prescription for this issue.

---

You know....there are a few countries that have figured out that "big companies" are the geese laying the golden eggs. To the surprise of many, Denmark is one of those countries. They make it very easy to start a business, very easy to hire and fire employees, and do not have excessive taxes on corporations. Instead, they tax the individuals heavily. They have figured out that thriving, profitable companies with employees provide great jobs and those jobs keep the welfare state from not only having to support those employees...but the heavy taxes on those employees pay for the support of those without great jobs. I speak from the experience of starting and operating a significant business in Denmark.

At the end of the day...only individuals pay taxes/tariffs/etc....companies are only the vehicles thru which the government taxes "the people." If you want to kill the economy and reduce standard of living....make life more difficult for "big companies." If you want to grow the standard of living...make life less difficult for "big companies."

Not a whole lot we can learn from little old Denmark...but by gosh we can sure observe their form of socialism and see that even in such extreme socialism "big companies" are what increase the people's standards of living. Long-term, standards of living only increase with increased productivity...and that takes capital and efficient operation.

---

All on board with low/no corporate taxes here. Another great thing to do would be to stop heavily taxing people's income as well so that they can start the next great company when the old giant behemoths become too big and too protected and need to be replaced by newer, smarter, less entrenched companies.

---

1,000% agree with lowering taxes on individuals.