well maybe if you made $20/h in cash and the share price is $20 you get 1 share/h. You can sell it (so you dont need to keep the equity in perpetuity) but if yo

well maybe if you made $20/h in cash and the share price is $20 you get 1 share/h. You can sell it (so you dont need to keep the equity in perpetuity) but if you live off $15, that you can have $5 (plus/minus appreciation/depreciation &dividends) shares in 60y time is a feature not a bug. Or maybe you have some mechanism whereby people have to sell back their shares when they leave (like partners at professional service firms). A classic economist would say that the 1st example proves that its the same as cash and thus nothing much should change, but behaviourally there is endowment bias etc. I wouldn't be surprised if paying people in savings/investments and then letting them liquidate would result in a much higher saving/investment rate than giving them cash and expecting them to invest.