Whatever Happened to ‘Every Man a King’?
Thomas B. Edsall
Feb 12, 2014, NYT
A passionate group of labor economists has taken up a cause championed 40 years ago by the late Senator Russell Long of Louisiana: to turn every worker into a capitalist.
Long, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1966 to 1981, inherited a populist commitment from his father, Huey Long, the Louisiana governor who famously campaigned on the slogan “Every Man a King.”
In 1973, Long became intrigued by the idea of granting corporations generous tax incentives to distribute stock to employees through Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs.
Long’s question was, could ESOPs “make haves out of the have-nots without taking it away from the haves?” Working on assurances that this was indeed the case, Long said, “That’s the kind of populism I can buy.”
(More here.)
Feb 12, 2014, NYT
A passionate group of labor economists has taken up a cause championed 40 years ago by the late Senator Russell Long of Louisiana: to turn every worker into a capitalist.
Long, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1966 to 1981, inherited a populist commitment from his father, Huey Long, the Louisiana governor who famously campaigned on the slogan “Every Man a King.”
In 1973, Long became intrigued by the idea of granting corporations generous tax incentives to distribute stock to employees through Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs.
Long’s question was, could ESOPs “make haves out of the have-nots without taking it away from the haves?” Working on assurances that this was indeed the case, Long said, “That’s the kind of populism I can buy.”
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home