Bit of a chicken and egg problem, most people aren’t buying stocks because they have no money, not because they don’t understand them. They have no money because the stock holders of the companies choose to put there profits into dividends and stock buybacks rather than increasing wages.
Class antagonism cannot be solved by just giving workers stock, because the worse off workers will just sell it due to economic pressure. Some may be able to hold it but they will have there interests ruptured with the stockless workers. So the capitalists will just raise the wages on those classes of workers with significant ownership , eg. The managers and professionals, and continue to ignore the rest, which is about where we’re at right now.
In order to have mass ownership of stocks there would have to be a mass social safety net so the people aren’t forced to sell there stocks to make ends meet. At that point then stocks stop becoming a source of security for the workers since they already feel secure from that safety net. Then they just become a voting mechanism for production that is still heavily skewed towards the rich. That would be better handled by the government or unions which have an equitable voting system.
Bit of a chicken and egg problem, most people aren’t buying stocks because they have no money, not because they don’t understand them. They have no money because the stock holders of the companies choose to put there profits into dividends and stock buybacks rather than increasing wages.
Class antagonism cannot be solved by just giving workers stock, because the worse off workers will just sell it due to economic pressure. Some may be able to hold it but they will have there interests ruptured with the stockless workers. So the capitalists will just raise the wages on those classes of workers with significant ownership , eg. The managers and professionals, and continue to ignore the rest, which is about where we’re at right now.
In order to have mass ownership of stocks there would have to be a mass social safety net so the people aren’t forced to sell there stocks to make ends meet. At that point then stocks stop becoming a source of security for the workers since they already feel secure from that safety net. Then they just become a voting mechanism for production that is still heavily skewed towards the rich. That would be better handled by the government or unions which have an equitable voting system.