<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/11/elizabeth-warren-capitalism-accountable-senate-bill>
"The senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill in Congress on Wednesday
aimed at shifting corporations away from “maximizing shareholder value” and
towards giving more support to workers and other stakeholders.
The
Accountable Capitalism Act proposes a series of reforms to increase
corporate responsibility, strengthen the voices of workers and others in
corporate decisions and shift companies away from their focus on shareholders.
In the 1980s, the largest corporations in the US dedicated less than half of
profits to shareholders, reinvesting the rest into the company, according to a
fact sheet on the bill provided by Warren’s office to the
Guardian.
But over the past decade, more and more profits have gone to shareholders
rather than workers or long-term investments. During the same period, worker
productivity has risen, with only modest increases to real wages for the median
worker, while income and wealth inequality have soared.
“Workers are a major reason corporate profits are surging, but their salaries
have barely moved while corporations’ shareholders make out like bandits,” said
Senator Warren in a statement on the bill “We need to stand up for working
people and hold giant companies responsible for decisions that hurt workers and
consumers while lining shareholders’ pockets.”
Given that 93% of all stocks in the US are owned by the wealthiest 10% of the
population, with over 50% of all US households owning no stock at all, Warren
argues the corporate policy of maximizing shareholder value is predicated on
“making the richest Americans even richer at all costs”.
The bill would mandate corporations with over $1bn in annual revenue obtain a
federal charter as a “United States Corporation” under the obligation to
consider the interests of all stakeholders and corporations engaging in
repeated and egregious illegal conduct can have their charters revoked.
The legislation would also mandate that at least 40% of a corporation’s board
of directors be chosen directly by employees and would enact restrictions on
corporate directors and officers from selling stocks within five years of
receiving the shares or three years within a company stock buyback.
All political expenditures by corporations would also have to be approved by at
least 75% of shareholders and directors."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
