Leaving aside tax issues (which for the US I am unfamiliar, but they are probably very important) I feel that what the company does with its money is nobody else's concern. How they get it is, though. The issue with workers, etc, is a completely different issue, and in my opinion, workers' rights are a matter of separate regulation, and the right to form unions.

I don't agree with limiting the ability of companies to buyback stock or pay dividends. Either way returns the money to shareholders, who then seek to reinvest it with someone who can use the money more effectively.

The tax advantage of buybacks over dividends should be eliminated.

And, RealAmerican , do you think that dividends and capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income, or do you think it makes sense to tax what money earns at significantly lower rates than what work earns?

I assume you did read that corporations are using current law to enrich shareholders and execs much more than the corp's workers--but you don't care?

I get it and it is absolute necessity to any recovery, and likely a good preventative.

"too technical to grasp?" I don't think so. Just another way Corps keep the money from circulating anywhere but among themselves, so of course it is bad for the overall economy and the workers.

I didn't write that clearly, dohn_1 --my bad.

I should have written "too technical to grasp easily, and therefore too likely to be ignored by way too many voters" or something of the sort.

Thank you Chuck and Bernie, that was a good read. It took me back to my childhood when there was a common understanding expressed in the statement "what's good for GM is good for America".

Those who owned GM stock earned when GM earned. Those who worked for GM got paid according to Union negotiated deals. Those who managed the company received fair and just compensation. Likewise the country as a whole benefited because everybody paid their fare share of taxes and thus we had schools for the kids learning and streets being paved to drive the new American automobile products on.

But then along came the new math. Americas finances haven't been the same since. I think this is what you guys were touching on. Stock buybacks are a result of the new math, the new equations that says, don't fertilize the fields of the masses, just the fields of the upper management and those who work to advantage them.

You are right!