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> everyone owns a share in the economy People already have that option, as long as they're ok also losing money when the economy is down.

• jjk166 3y ago
  People have the option to buy a share of the economy assuming they have enough spare cash lying around to do so. People in most places are not currently entitled to a share of the economy. Many places, however, have set up sovereign wealth funds which do allow the population at large to benefit from the economy.
  • jsbg 3y ago
    > Many places, however, have set up sovereign wealth funds which do allow the population at large to benefit from the economy. In which of these places does the economy only go up?
    • jjk166 3y ago
      Over the long term? Pretty much all of them. While some years are slower than others and there's the occasional recession where groth does go negative, long term economic growth is very reliable. In the US, GDP has increased 52 out of the past 60 years, with GDP per capita increasing 2200% in that time period. If you invested in the S&P500 in 1960, you'd have made an inflation adjusted return of over 4000%. Wealth is constantly being created, infrastructure is built faster than it's destroyed, there are scientific and technological innovations, and people become more educated and better skilled, and quality of life generally improves. It's really difficult for an economy to legitimately go down. That takes like North Korea levels of mismanagement. If your country collapses, the sovereign wealth fund is likely the least of your worries.
• jacknews 3y ago
  The stock market is not 'the economy', just as a bookmaker is not a racecourse. Universal equity shares would be more broadly based, and also would not be transferable, else you'd just get the same old concentration of wealth. Economies sometimes shrink, eg GDP went down during covid, but in general they grow. But the 'capital value' is not important anyway, the dividend is. Even if an economy is shrinking, it is still producing.