Shared Capitalism in the USA

Already meaningful, US worker ownership can be expanded with public policies. The US spends about $1 trillion every five years on tax incentives for businesses. To expand worker ownership, the White House could develop an Office of Broad-Based Capitalism. Stock market companies should only be allowed deductions for executive pay if they have a broad-based worker ownership plan for all workers. Moreover, all Federal business tax subsidies could be conditioned on a broad-based worker ownership plan. However, worker ownership will never spread until earlier tax incentives for Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) in stock market companies repealed by the first President George Bush, are reinstated with additional encouragements for all companies to make stock grants to workers. Finally, Congress needs to make it easier for small business people retiring to sell the company to the workers and for private equity firms to spin off their portfolio companies to the workers.