In my comment I specifically cited dividends in addition to buybacks as I agree they both represent money that was returned to shareholders and could have been

In my comment I specifically cited dividends in addition to buybacks as I agree they both represent money that was returned to shareholders and could have been saved. I don’t agree with your claim that the companies are incentivized to be insolvent so they get nice bailouts or they’ll get left behind. Looking at the auto industry in 2008, GM desperately needed a bailout and got $18 billion and the government ended up taking over the company, going bankrupt, and then the assets were sold off cheaply to make a new company. How is that advantageous for the shareholders (who lost everything!) compared to the other auto companies like Ford which did not need a bailout and were simply forced to take a smaller amount of money (~$5 billion) to boost their coffers and build investor confidence during the crisis. Ford never needed the cash (except arguably as a confidence buffer) and never went bankrupt so the shareholders made out better.