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we don't need shareholder growth capitalism as it stands... we need sustainable capitalism that is in it for the long term. no clue how to achieve that as it st

we don't need shareholder growth capitalism as it stands... we need sustainable capitalism that is in it for the long term. no clue how to achieve that as it stands though and ceos have short term goals/bonuses tied to short term profits.

TylerE 3y ago
Exactly. It used to be a perfectly respectable thing to have a factory that made decent widgets, provided a good life for the owners and employees, and made enough profit to gradually upgrade/squirrel away for a rainy day.
tfourb 3y ago
You could quite simply legislate permissible compensation structures to make sure that long-term sustainability (however you want to define that) is incentivized. I.e. mandate that above a certain threshold, c-suite and board compensation is tied to long-term performance of the company. Another (perhaps more drastic) approach would be to force shareholders to hold their shares for a minimum period of time, or institute a mechanism that distributes losses across the shareholders of the last X years. That would incentivize long-term investment strategies over short-term rent-seeking. Or you use taxes. In Germany (where I live) we have a speculation tax on property, for example: If you (as a private individual) sell a property less than 10 years after you have acquired it, any profit from that sale is taxed as income. After the 10-year cut-off you don't have to tax it at all.
- gottorf 3y ago
  > Another (perhaps more drastic) approach would be to force shareholders to hold their shares for a minimum period of time The US tax code already does this by differentiating tax treatment between short- and long-term capital gains, although you might argue that the time required to qualify as long-term (1 year) is too short.
93po 3y ago
We should have capitalism but where humans and human interests come first and companies work to support a society where everyone is housed, fed, educated, and healthy. Also we shouldn't have a thousand companies all competing to do the same thing - people should work collaboratively instead of the same work getting done a thousand times over. Given the community focused nature of this system, maybe the name of it can reflect that.

TylerE 3y ago

Exactly. It used to be a perfectly respectable thing to have a factory that made decent widgets, provided a good life for the owners and employees, and made enough profit to gradually upgrade/squirrel away for a rainy day.

tfourb 3y ago

You could quite simply legislate permissible compensation structures to make sure that long-term sustainability (however you want to define that) is incentivized. I.e. mandate that above a certain threshold, c-suite and board compensation is tied to long-term performance of the company. Another (perhaps more drastic) approach would be to force shareholders to hold their shares for a minimum period of time, or institute a mechanism that distributes losses across the shareholders of the last X years. That would incentivize long-term investment strategies over short-term rent-seeking. Or you use taxes. In Germany (where I live) we have a speculation tax on property, for example: If you (as a private individual) sell a property less than 10 years after you have acquired it, any profit from that sale is taxed as income. After the 10-year cut-off you don't have to tax it at all.

gottorf 3y ago
> Another (perhaps more drastic) approach would be to force shareholders to hold their shares for a minimum period of time The US tax code already does this by differentiating tax treatment between short- and long-term capital gains, although you might argue that the time required to qualify as long-term (1 year) is too short.

93po 3y ago

We should have capitalism but where humans and human interests come first and companies work to support a society where everyone is housed, fed, educated, and healthy. Also we shouldn't have a thousand companies all competing to do the same thing - people should work collaboratively instead of the same work getting done a thousand times over. Given the community focused nature of this system, maybe the name of it can reflect that.