Building a True Ownership Society: How Employees Can Share in Wealth

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Discover how to create a society where everyone has “skin in the game.” This episode explores the principles of building, creating, and protecting wealth through business ownership and employee participation. From small businesses to major corporations like Home Depot and AutoZone, learn how profit-sharing, stock ownership, and performance incentives can transform employees into stakeholders—and even millionaires. We also tackle the pitfalls of executive stock grants and why true ownership should empower workers, not just executives. Whether you’re starting your own business or working for one, this is a roadmap for shared prosperity and responsible capitalism.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
How to build a true ownership society. One of the
things that I try to get across on my program
every single week. I try to teach younger people older people.
Doesn't make any difference in life. You want to go
out there to build, create, protect, and teach well again,

(00:38):
building and creating, starting your own business, that's one way
of doing it. God has given us each some skill.
We've got to figure out what it is, and we've
got to go out there and we've got to utilize it.
We've got to harness it. We've got to do something
with it. Okay, being a good steward of the gives
that have been given to you. And it's different for everybody.

(00:58):
For crying out loud, Yeah, certain people are given certain
gifts for certain reason. You know, question that whatever it
may be, figure out what you are good at and
run with it, do something with it. Can with people. Ah,
you know, I'm not cut out to be a business owner,
all these various different things. Maybe maybe not okay, maybe

(01:18):
a small business. I get this, Well, what about all
these people working in all these companies all around the country.
People do that? I mean they can't. Everybody can't start
their own business. I know that. Yeah, maybe you can
maybe have a side business, a second business, but hold
on a second here building an ownership society. And this
is something that I have been talking about for some time.

(01:39):
And this goes to how we handle executive pay here
in this country and how we compensate workers here in
this country. Some companies have gotten it right over the years,
providing stock grants to their workers. There was a piece
in the Wall Street Journal by a professor by name

(02:00):
Mark Scausen talking about sharing the wealth, not redistributing it. Again, redistribution,
that's all. Elizabeth Warren wants to tax unrealized gains and
pass money out. Wrong. Wrong, And he said he talks
about various different companies here that have done the right thing.

(02:22):
It talks about AutoZone and their employees and how wealth
did they have become, how many millionaires. I'm going to
talk about Home Depot because one of their co founders,
Ken Langon, is kind of a personal hero of mine.
Employees at Home Depot receive performance bonuses twice a year
if they achieve their individual company goals. They also share

(02:45):
and profit through discounted stock offers, and they're matching future
Builder for one. K Plans. Co founder Ken lang Goon
told a reporter, we decided everyone had to have skin
in the game. That's a great concept, something that I
early believe in. We made certain that each of the
four founders, including myself, would never own more than five

(03:06):
percent of the company. The remaining shares would be owned
by the public or the employees. We now have more
than three thousand associates who started pushing carts back into
the store from the parking lot, who are now millionaires.
If there's a better example of how capitalism works, you'll

(03:27):
have to show me any They talk about other companies,
Nvidia and many others that have done the right thing
over the years. This is something that it doesn't people
talk about it much, but it's a key. Okay, it's key.
It's important good businesses do this. They want their employees

(03:50):
to have skin in the game. They want them to
do well. They need to be paid properly, and one
of the ways to do it is actually having ownership
in that company. I don't believe. But one of the
things that I really don't think we need to correct
when it comes to the tax code is executive compensation

(04:12):
via stock grants. That to me is problematic. You are,
I said, you're making the big bucks. Okay, you're making
the big bucks. You're getting a nice, hefty salary. And
I don't have any problem with that. I really don't.
I mean, you're running a massive company, you're employing all

(04:33):
these you should get paid properly. I mean, sho hey,
Hotani got paid. As it turned out, the Los Angeles
Dollard Dodgers did pretty well on that signing. As a
matter of fact, the amount of money that they've generated
has blown away to the money that they paid the guy.
And they paid him really well. Okay, The problem is
that a Tani's not getting stock in the Dodgers. He's not. Again,

(04:58):
that's a whole different world, different club when it comes to,
you know, franchise sport, franchise ownership. But I don't believe
you know, if you're an executive, you made it to
the top at JP Morgan Xys, it doesn't make any difference. Okay,
get paid, get paid well, if you do your job well,

(05:19):
purchase your own shares, purchase your own shares. You get
to that point in time. I don't think the company
should be granting them anything if they're getting that big
of a salary. If you want to give a discounted
stock package, you know where they can buy it at
a discount, Okay, can maybe do that, But as far
as stock grants are concerned, yeah, it should be for

(05:41):
the workers of the company building you know, building wealth.
That's what it should be for, quite frankly, and it's
the right thing to do. And I I the early
jobs I had working for an Italian family in New
York and their restaurants was how well they paid everybody.

(06:04):
I was just pay just about how well they took
care of everybody, employee meals, you know, sending a case
of beer down to the kitchen and the dishwashers, you know,
close to close up time every single night. Everyone was
paid well, everyone was taken care of, and everyone treated
that job like it was their own, like it was

(06:26):
their own restaurant. And one of the things that they did, Okay,
because they have many restaurants now, they find an employee.
They find an employee that does well, they expand with
that employee. That employee has to have some skin in
the game. Obviously, can't front the money for an entire restaurant.
They do, but come up with something twenty five fifty

(06:48):
thousand dollars to put into it. It's a great way
of doing business, facilitating ownership to your employees. Watchdog on
Wall street dot com