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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

It's become easier and easier for anyone to own stock in American companies. Commissions are now $0, and you can buy fractional shares.

Becoming an owner is just opening a brokerage account away.

If land is your thing, you can buy shares in REITs, too. (Real Estate Investment Trusts)

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"I'm being oppressed by my own retirement fund". :/

Quite often this can be literally true; you have ownership but not control, because there's too many layers of indirection. You may find your retirement fund is investing in companies that give money to the PACs of candidates you oppose.

You have a vote on how the corporation or REIT is run. You can also sell your shares, and buy shares in an outfit more aligned with your interests. There are lots of companies to choose from.

You only have a vote on shares that you hold directly. There are lots of tax-incentive wrappers where this isn't true. Ultimately, yes, you usually have the flexibility of picking individual stocks. But then diversification (for security) reduces your overall time and attention available to control any one stock. Buying passive index trackers, as usually recommended, gives you neither.

In other words, it's the individual's choice whether they buy voting stock or not.

Anyone can buy shares in Microsoft (for example) and become a part-owner and have votes. And it's never been easier to do so. Microsoft will even pay you a quarterly dividend as your cut of the company's profits.

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