> Stock buybacks are economically equivalent to paying dividends Okay.. what's the chain of logic here? > but they’re less costly from a tax perspective. Su

> Stock buybacks are economically equivalent to paying dividends Okay.. what's the chain of logic here? > but they’re less costly from a tax perspective. Sure.. but they also interfere with the "public ownership" ideal, which is the specific principle I was commenting about in the original. > Are dividends also to be banned? No.. just buybacks. I think you can still have dividends, even though there's some abstract idea that they're equivalent. > If so, what is even the purpose of a company The question is.. "what even is the purpose of public ownership." If you want to operate privately, I believe all of these questions become moot. > and who would possibly invest in a it knowing that it can’t pay any returns? The public. Which is what we want. Or, again, stay private.