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Some people prefer cash to share holdings. It is, by all means, a preference.
by grondilu 10y ago
Some people prefer cash to share holdings. It is, by all means, a preference.
- naravara 10y agoSome people would prefer holdings in lieu of cash, but prefer being able to eat and pay rent in lieu of holdings so they wind up taking the cash. That too is, technically, a preference but let's not pretend all "preferences" have no more weight or societal implication than what flavor of ice-cream we like.
- grondilu 10y agoYou seem to believe that people don't own capital because they are poor or something. It is certainly true that poor people don't own capital, but it is also probably true that a lot of people who are not poor do not own capital either. For instance, I suppose that socialistic-minded people don't, and yet I doubt they are all poor. In any case, the preference I was talking about was excluding wealth considerations. All other things being equal, the tendency to hoard capital is, I believe, part of character.
- vertex-four 10y agoTo be honest, everyone I know who can afford to own capital does, in some form or another. The alternative is an inability to retire.
- grondilu 10y ago> in some form or another. Well, I may have made the mistake of using the word capital to refer to shares of companies. I admit the term is more generic and even cash can be seen as capital. Still, this thread started about the idea of giving shares to a category of person. So my point remains : ownership is a dynamic concept. Even if you give those shares to people you think should own them, what makes you think they will keep them and not sell them?