At least Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is giving it a shot. Will she succeed? Not a chance in hell, if my intuition serves. But she is giving it a shot:
Elizabeth Warren this week introduced a plan for legislation that would rein in big business, redistribute wealth and potentially curb corporate political donations.
The Accountable Capitalism Act, which Warren announced in an article for the Wall Street Journal, “restores the idea that giant American corporations should look out for American interests”, the Massachusetts senator and potential presidential candidate wrote.
“In the early 1980s, large American companies sent less than half their earnings to shareholders, spending the rest on their employees and other priorities,” Warren added.
But between 2007 and 2016, large American companies dedicated 93% of their earnings to shareholders. Because the wealthiest 10% of US households own 84% of American-held shares, the obsession with maximizing shareholder returns effectively means America’s biggest companies have dedicated themselves to making the rich even richer.
Warren knows how to read, write and think. That alone will probably disqualify her ideas and her legislation which stands to benefit many of those who think Donald Trump has got the right idea.
She's a lone voice in a body dedicated to protecting wealth. Good for her.
ReplyDeleteIt would help if she understood basic accounting. Dividends and share buy-backs are out of free cash flow, which takes into account wages and tax among other things, prior their distribution to shareholders.
ReplyDeleteI read Warren's Bill.
ReplyDeleteIt's short and easy to understand.
She certainly "gets" it.
The Guardian's journalist & editor really should have digested what she actually proposed instead of regurgitating her spin.
The actual proposal actually sounds like a sound flexible law. The Op Ed article sounds like political rhetoric aimed at the Progressive base.
Trump's Zombies will reject both, but anyone not in the 1% should embrace Warren's Bill wholeheartedly.
Read the Bill:
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-introduces-accountable-capitalism-act