4 ms·

How would you determine N? Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla were unprofitable for a really long time. Would they be as successful or even exist if their CEOs lost m

• dane-pgp 5y ago
  > How would you determine N? Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla were unprofitable for a really long time. For context, Amazon was incorporated in 1994, IPO'd in 1997, and made its first profit in 2001, when it had a market cap of $4 billion. Also, Bezos currently owns only 11.1% of Amazon's shares. So I think that N could be as low as 5 to 10 years; but one of the major goals of a wealth tax would be to prevent multi-generational accumulation of wealth, so even 30 years of tax exemption might be an acceptable privilege to grant to founders of successful businesses. > Would they be as successful or even exist if their CEOs lost majority control on year N+7 and public investors demand pivots to immediate revenues? If the concern is that the founders lose majority control and the new owners make worse decisions, then the government could hold the shares (to be sold at some later date) but allow the founders to keep the voting rights that those shares represent for as long as they work at the company.