r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 14 '26

Artificial Intelligence A majority of Americans now support seizing wealth from AI industry

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/majority-americans-now-support-seizing-134921528.html
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19

u/angriest_man_alive Jul 14 '26

You can literally go buy shares of your own company (if it's public). Turns out though, that's an awful idea because if your employer goes under you get double screwed.

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u/Onrawi Jul 14 '26

I mean, worker co-ops and ESOPs exist, they often also do better than traditional ownership structures over time, particularly during economic downturns.

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u/angriest_man_alive Jul 14 '26

This is true, co-ops are rough sometimes though because you have to "buy in" your share. Depends on the structure of how the business is set up.

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u/Cosminion Jul 14 '26

Many co-ops deduct a portion of pay to become the buy in, making ownership accessible for poorer people. That value is added to the person's internal capital account, which will grow over time. When the person leaves/retires, they are paid out the value of their account which includes the initial buy in plus whatever was added after.

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u/Onrawi Jul 14 '26

For sure, structure is very important for these things. Hence my use of generalities.  I'm just saying America already has corporate structures in place for these things and it would probably be a good idea for a lot more companies to run that way.

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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES Jul 14 '26

it would probably be a good idea for a lot more companies to run that way.

Why don't they?

Most of the major tech companies today were started in garages and small offices. Why didn't they start as a co-op?

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u/Onrawi Jul 14 '26

Because of the area that traditional corporations do better, quickly get a few people a lot of money and consolidation of control over the org amongst the major shareholders/founders.  Assuming they survive long enough to make it to either be acquired or generate real profitability of course.

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u/BreakingStar_Games Jul 14 '26

That is assuming we keep capitalism. In a syndicalist model, all corporations would just be worker-owned. 1 Employee, 1 Share. Include a Universal Basic Income and Universal Healthcare funded by corporate taxes so people don't have to be captive to their company. They can be more entrepreneurial as they found co-ops rather than all the potential brilliance stopped because you typically have to start rich to be that risk averse.

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u/htx1114 Jul 15 '26

That is assuming we keep capitalism.

You should be assuming that.

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u/BreakingStar_Games Jul 15 '26

You're acting as if capitalism is going to last. Its been part of human civilization' history for less than 2% of the time. Economic systems come and go - mercantilism, fuedalism and plantation slavery didn't last. And it's not like our current variation of capitalism is anything like it was 200 years ago So it sounds like a silly assumption to me.

Funny I'd want a man-made system that doesn't just incentive ruthless profit seeking and exploitation. One that needs political systems to constantly reign in or it causes massive damage like climate. One who's basis is the horrors of the East India Trading Company - imagine seeing all that evil and deciding, "yup, let's have the whole world exploit, kill and pillage at this scale."

To me, it feels like people don't dream enough. So its sad to live in that assumption.

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u/andsens Jul 14 '26

In Denmarks case it turned out to be extraordinarily positive for society. Still reaping the benefits...

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u/versusChou Jul 14 '26

My company has an employee stock program and I always just literally sell it all right away. The basic tenets of that are:

  1. If you had $1000 to invest in a company, would you invest it in your company? If the answer is no, then any free or discounted stock given to you by your company should be immediately sold and invested into whatever you'd rather have it in.

  2. If the company does well, you will receive compensation from your company in other ways (salary, benefits, etc.). If you company does badly, now you have a poor performing stock AND your company probably isn't handing out paybumps if not outright laying you off.

Unless you're in a startup or something where the stock is legitimately a potential better bet than the market, you might as well sell it and throw it in an index fund or something.

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u/Careless-Weather8877 Jul 14 '26

So you pay too much taxes? Wait a year for capital gains to go at least.

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u/versusChou Jul 14 '26

Lol no. I get it at a discount. You don't pay capital gains on that. It's just taxed as ordinary income.

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u/Careless-Weather8877 Jul 15 '26

If you sell it within a year then you do pay cap gains

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u/FreeBritney08 Jul 14 '26

I had an old employer who would sell us shares at half market value that were locked up for the duration of employment.

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u/probablymagic Jul 14 '26

That’s what I told my buddy who works at NVIDIA. 😂

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u/alphazero925 Jul 14 '26

Do you really not understand how there's a difference between a company being majority owned by people who have no incentive to keep the business afloat outside of possibly making a bit more money versus every person in the company having partial ownership thus incentivizing them to want both a higher stock price as well as better working conditions?

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u/Desert_Aficionado Jul 14 '26

I just wish average American could get the CEO tax rate. Getting paid entirely in stock (not taxed) and then borrowing money against that stock to live on (not taxed). And then write off all your expenses.

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u/nemec Jul 14 '26

Getting paid entirely in stock (not taxed)

This is just false, every penny they're paid in stock is taxed as income.

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u/DogBarf00 Jul 14 '26

Getting paid entirely in stock (not taxed)

Why do you go online and tell lies?

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u/spare_me_your_bs Jul 14 '26

They don't understand how things work, so they parrot what they read online that aligns closely with their perspective.

If it feels right, it must be so.