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{{g}}The holder for the time being of a [[share]] in the equity of a company; a part owner of a corporate enterprise. Usually, shares are issued in [[registered form]] (as opposed to [[bearer security|bearer]] form), because it is sort of important to know who — you know — ''owns the goddamn company''. Whereas your [[creditors]], on the other hand — could you really give a fig about them? Well, obviously you could, but as a general category, when you have issued that indebtedness in the form of [[Bearer instrument|freely transferable]] [[debt securities]], it is that fact that ''someone'' holds them that mainly concerns you, rather than precisely ''who''. | {{g}}The holder for the time being of a [[share]] in the equity of a company; a part owner of a corporate enterprise. Usually, shares are issued in [[registered form]] (as opposed to [[bearer security|bearer]] form), because it is sort of important to know who — you know — ''owns the goddamn company''. Whereas your [[creditors]], on the other hand — could you really give a fig about them? Well, obviously you could, but as a general category, when you have issued that indebtedness in the form of [[Bearer instrument|freely transferable]] [[debt securities]], it is that fact that ''someone'' holds them that mainly concerns you, rather than precisely ''who''. | ||
Once upon a time, not terribly long ago, the shareholder was an opaque yet sacred being, somewhat divine, to whose improving ends everyone engaged in the company’s operation twitched their every | Once upon a time, not terribly long ago, the shareholder was an opaque yet sacred being, somewhat divine, to whose improving ends everyone engaged in the company’s operation twitched their every fibre. This ''will to shareholder return'' sprang from the brow of {{author|Adam Smith}} himself, and his [[invisible hand]]: | ||
{{quote|“...Though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements...They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species”}} | {{quote|“...Though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements...They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species”}} | ||
This is, by the way, a ''breathtaking'' insight; no less [[Darwin’s Dangerous Idea|dangerous]] or revolutionary as [[Charles Darwin]]’s: from collected unfettered, venal, selfish actions [[emerges]] optimal community welfare. | |||
The modern corporation is an embodiment of exactly that idea. ''Everything is predicated upon the enrichment of shareholders.'' | |||
Performance measurement was simple: the shareholders’ collective interest propelled and motivated the machine in all its manifold intricacy. | Performance measurement was simple: the shareholders’ collective interest propelled and motivated the machine in all its manifold intricacy. | ||
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That interest could be measured in a single dimension: cash profit. Nothing else mattered, and this even put a gate on the extent to which the company’s directors, officers, servants and agents could let their [[agency problem|conflicting personal interests]] colour their pursuit of this noble, singular goal. You cannot hide from after-tax profit. | That interest could be measured in a single dimension: cash profit. Nothing else mattered, and this even put a gate on the extent to which the company’s directors, officers, servants and agents could let their [[agency problem|conflicting personal interests]] colour their pursuit of this noble, singular goal. You cannot hide from after-tax profit. | ||
But we live in a post-millennial world. | But we live in a post-millennial world. A venal, selfish things, riven with bias, discrimination; a product of the West’s colonial history of oppression and wanton marginalisation. [[Adam Smith]], though a vigorous opponent of slavery, back in 1763, is in danger of being cancelled.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/cancel-culture-stalks-adam-smith-an-ardent-foe-of-slavery/</ref> | ||
In place of shareholder capitalism, we see [[stakeholder capitalism]]. This asks corporations to oriented themselves to serve not just their shareholders, but ''all'' their “stakeholders”: their customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, the community, the environment, and the distantly marginalised who suffer invisibly under the awful externalities of industry while shareholders bask in the fruits of the pursuit of profit. | In place of shareholder capitalism, we see [[stakeholder capitalism]]. This asks corporations to oriented themselves to serve not just their shareholders, but ''all'' their “stakeholders”: their customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, the community, the environment, and the distantly marginalised who suffer invisibly under the awful externalities of industry while shareholders bask in the fruits of the pursuit of profit. | ||