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Comment by njharman | Hacker News Reader

Employees of corporations should be co-owners by default.

My present employer did offer stock as an incentive. It was a great program.

Past tense: FASB changed the rules, the discount changed, employee participation (naturally) dropped, it stopped being cost effective to offer this plan.

I think you'd be surprised at how many people don't want to shoulder that risk.

Working full time for a single company is a huge risk.

Being able to walk away from that company no strings attached mitigates that risk. Being financially liable should the company go under is why co-owners share in the profits beyond salary/hourly wages.

ETA: moral/ethical "liability" included.

At least in America, being financially liable if a company goes under isn't an issue if the company was setup in reasonable way. 99% of companies are.

Less than ownership. It's a lot easier to change to a new job than to change to ownership of a new company.

Why?

To share in the profits and success? The majority of wealth generation happens when you own equity.

There already is a way to share in the profits and success of your company--set up your 401(k) to include company stock. More generally, if your company does well and isn't run by shitheads, bonuses and raises happen. What exactly does it mean when one of Microsoft's 94,000 employees (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/inside_ms.aspx#RevenueHe...) is a co-owner?

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