Originally Posted by
javacodeguy
How would that even work?
There are only a fixed number of shares available. Even if they gave out a tiny amount to each person every year, it would quickly become a significant portion of the entire company.
Plus the company could only technically give away the shares that it owns itself. Private shareholders aren't going to give away their shares. The only solution then would be to issue more shares. I guarantee you most board members are not going to allow issuing more shares, because that would quickly devalue their shares.
It could only work for a very short period of time if at all.
Technically this program is more than possible - think about stock options the company issues to its employees - these are additional shares issued by the company and not taken from existing shareholders. So why not do that with your customers if you can do that with you employees?
I think the issue with not having such an arrangements is not because it's technically possible but because:
- first of all in my opinion most Americans will just not feel comfortable owning individual shares - most people don't know how to deal with them and feel much better with cash or miles.
- there will be tax issues when selling these shares - as "tax cost basis" of these shares is uncertain (worse yet probably zero)
- share prices constantly change so from financial perspective the company will issue rewards inherently variable in value - not a deal-killer in and by itself but making gloom idea even gloomier
On the other side I like this idea for its creativity!!! Maybe you can create an airline that will implement such a program and break the ice?