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The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

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Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#71

Post by smallerfish »

vizzier wrote: post #38
lantry wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It creates a lot of perverse incentives, and is probably a bad idea in the long run. If the govt makes more money when intel is successful, then the govt is incentivized to sabotage Intel's competitors (e.g. through tariffs, export controls, and many other powers). This distorts the free market that is (allegedly) at the center of America's success

The answer is probably an automatic state in any company over a specific size given to the government. The only competition is then international.

Still perverse incentives. In this case the government is implicitly biased against startups competing against a giant.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#72

Post by ceejayoz »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #63
ashdksnndck wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communism with American Characteristics

[flagged]

I need people to understand that 1860s Republicans and 2020s Republicans are somewhat different. I'm begging at this point.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#73

Post by measurablefunc »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #67

There was a really interesting episode of EconTalk podcast about 6 years ago which had a guest (woman, if it helps find it) arguing that the US gov should invest in and have ownership of a lot more startups, similar to how they funded Tesla.

You should look into In-Q-Tel.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#74

Post by tehjoker »

choult wrote: post #28
dachworker wrote: post #20

Corporate taxes don't work and taxing the rich is super hard. Could this be a way for the state to suplement tax revenue?

No, not enough money in it. Tax the rich.

That's confusing. The rich make their money and hold their assets in economically productive (or extractive) enterprises. Land, factories, services, arms, etc are the real storehouses of wealth. If you take that from the rich, they have nothing.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#75

Post by thesmtsolver2 »

dayofthedaleks wrote: post #26
benoau wrote: post #3

Isn't that just socialism without the social benefits?

[flagged]

Really? It is quite fashionable to call the US fascist while going gaga at other countries that have similar or worse conditions. Let me bring receipts.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/263159/1/1815112018....

   The most striking difference is that top investors in Europe hold much higher stakes than in the United States. The top ten in Europe features several governments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Government-owned_comp...

Do you want to apply the word you had in mind to those governments too?

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#76

Post by dcookie »

I know it is not the same thing, but in case people aren't already aware, Alaskan residents have long owned stocks in private companies.

It is called the Alaska Permanent Fund and a constitutionally established sovereign wealth fund invested in a diversified portfolio and managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

Earnings help fund the state government and annual dividend checks are distributed to residents.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#77

Post by anon7725 »

contagiousflow wrote: post #60
dachworker wrote: post #20

Corporate taxes don't work and taxing the rich is super hard. Could this be a way for the state to suplement tax revenue?

> Corporate taxes don't work What does this mean?

I am not the original commenter, but I interpret it to mean that large corporations can almost always arrange it so that they don't pay tax or don't pay their fair share of tax. 88 companies paid $0 tax on $105B in profit in 2025[0]

[0] https://itep.org/88-profitable-corporations-paid-zero-income...

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#78

Post by dibujaron »

vizzier wrote: post #38
lantry wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It creates a lot of perverse incentives, and is probably a bad idea in the long run. If the govt makes more money when intel is successful, then the govt is incentivized to sabotage Intel's competitors (e.g. through tariffs, export controls, and many other powers). This distorts the free market that is (allegedly) at the center of America's success

The answer is probably an automatic state in any company over a specific size given to the government. The only competition is then international.

I read recently that corporate taxes used to be a lot higher on large conglomerated companies, which used to deter monopolization somewhat. Under this automatic-stake idea, it'd be interesting if the government's stake in corporations increased as they got larger? Companies try to avoid this and so don't combine so much?

Of course once the government does have a large stake in the largest monopoly-like companies, it's immensely motivated to keep them large. Hmm. This idea isn't good.

Re: The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

#80

Post by throwaway27448 »

asimpson wrote: post #39

The investments listed here in the article make this seem like an effort to shore up or incentivize industries or companies that are integral to national defense. One example, in the ongoing US-China trade war one of the strongest moves China did was put [export controls on rare earth minerals][1] which are essential components across technology, defense, and healthcare to name a few. The government investing in thes…

Seems like it'd be a lot cheaper to work with china rather than pretend like they're going to attack us.
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