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Notes -
Stock prices are quoted not in currency but in coupons, issued to citizens on attaining their majority, not convertible to cash, and reverting to the treasury at death. The price of a firm's stock in coupons will, presumably, reflect both the current value of its dividends and expectations about its future performance. Citizens can buy and sell shares in firms directly, or, more plausibly, invest in mutual funds.
I don't understand what this means. In what sense are the shares not convertible to cash? They can be bought and sold and pay dividends. Is this just a ban on stock buybucks? What does that accomplish?
Why pay them in shares in at all? Why not just give them cash with which they can buy the shares?
Finally, why not allow them to pass them on to their children? They'll find other ways to do this anyway and, to the extent that it works, it would discourage investment.
I think the proposal would prevent private individuals from purchasing or selling coupons (simply by making contracts involving those unenforceable) and heavily regulate conversions, mostly focusing on banks. Dividends would be issued from cash flows. Existing companies would fund new investments via cash loans from banks. New companies can either rely on cash loans from banks or on giving up a stake in the business to the banks; once the business reaches a certain size, it would be required to IPO, and owners would get get coupons in exchange for their labor- or cash-derived ownership stake. Banks would then be required to sell any accumulated coupons for cash (this market doesn't really exist; I suppose the government sets the conversion rate between cash and coupon, in line with how much it deems the socially optimal consumption vs investment rate to be).
The benefit of having separate capital and consumption currencies is that one can be treated as basically an inalienable; the only way you lose coupons is bad investments, and you can't be forced by circumstance to give up your claim to public ownership.
I'm not convinced this offers much over regular cash grants every person is entitled to, and it puts a whole lot of faith in banks performing oversight competently, giving investments judiciously, and making their decisions without political considerations.
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