Socialize The Stock Market

The public should hold shares and workers should sit on boards

Socialism is not a bad word anymore because social democracy has worked out well. Like a Toyota Prius, social democracy is a hybrid political engine. It runs capitalism alongside robust social welfare programs, with excellent results. Social democracies are the happiest countries on Earth and have not produced any major or even minor Stalins.

This is not, however, textbook socialism. Socialism means that workers own the means of production, and have control over their management. And this has been tried, usually to ill effect. In practice, this has meant nationalization of companies, which turns Animal Farm very quickly. Just another set of bosses. What I’m talking about is something completely different.

What if there was a simple intervention within the capitalist system that could deliver social control while increasing the health of the ‘free’ market? I think there is.

You don’t need to nationalize companies. Just nationalize the stock market.

Picture This

I don’t mean nationalize everything. Just, say, 20% of every publicly held company. These shares would be publically owned (literally). They would be held by a sovereign wealth fund. As the stock market…