cryptoleft

If stocks didn’t exist, Elon, Bezos, and Thiel wouldn’t be megabillionaires. They’d have to pay themselves and their investors with real income not with this funny money that they can’t actually sell without it rapidly depreciating. All of the insane things rich people do with borrowing money to acquire things essentially for free is because stocks exist, and thus merely eliminating one thing (shares of companies) would radically reshape the world we live in, what wealth means, and the nature of power.

Discuss.

exploring the intersections of technology, decentralization, and leftism • links: thumbsup.me • words: blog.thumbsup.me

I just want to preemptively point out that this isn’t a post claiming companies shouldn’t exist. I rarely claim that. It isn’t even a post claiming all companies should be cooperatives; though I often claim that. 

This is merely stating the fact that, in a world where companies needed to raise money on the expectation that they paid back the actual money (with interest) rather than that the market itself would pay them by buying their shares, that most billionaires would not exist. No guillotines needed, and not even the abolition of capitalism. Just the abolition of meaningless paper that makes the rich richer.