I'm not sure I would say that "The People" don't want to own companies. This report from Give Directly suggests that giving money directly to the poor resulted

I'm not sure I would say that "The People" don't want to own companies. This report from Give Directly suggests that giving money directly to the poor resulted in a "+116% percent increase in monthly household investment in land, farm inputs, livestock, housing and household durables..." http://www.givedirectly.org/pdf/2012AnnualReport.pdf http://www.givedirectly.org/pdf/2012AnnualReport.pdf These purchases are money generating assets. I think you touch on an important point though. It's much easier for a random individual to turn money into a money generating asset than it is for them to take a random money generating asset (MSFT stock) and turn it into cash. Ownership of a money generating asset requires domain knowledge, whereas you can choose to spend money where you already have domain knowledge.