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What does this even mean? No business is allowed to buy another business? This would force economic activity to be centered around wealthy individuals (even mor
by woah 5y ago
What does this even mean? No business is allowed to buy another business? This would force economic activity to be centered around wealthy individuals (even more than it already is).
People feel that wealthy individuals having majority control over big businesses is a bad thing (Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc), but your proposal would enshrine this in law.
For example think about the case of Steel, inc. vs John Smith. Steel, inc. is a corporation with a broad set of owners (hell, let's make it employee owned). It makes steel. John Smith is a rich guy who has bought controlling interests in a number of privately held businesses which are all in the steel industry.
John Smith will easily be able to outcompete Steel, inc. Steel, inc. is encumbered by your law, while John Smith is not. If John Smith's empire needs an ore mine, he can just buy it. If Steel, inc. needs an ore mine, the only thing they can do is find a new ore deposit, and buy all the machinery needed on the open market.
Your law mandates that all business be controlled by rich individuals instead of groups of shareholders.
- kedean 5y agoIt doesn't seem like much of a stretch to also stop allowing an individual to buy up multiple businesses like that. Starting lots of businesses is one thing, buying them up like Pokemon provides very little value to the world. John Smith could still buy up controlling shares in various companies, but it's also not a big stretch to regulate that sort of thing too. I don't really buy the idea that we need huge corporations to protect us from the rich.