> countless ways around the issue of "average" employees being punished. E.g. hard caps on top employee compensation for X years. Bans on dividends
How do either of these help an employee of a company that was just poofed?
> there's holes in these but plenty of smarter people than me who can easily make them watertight
No. There aren't. Both the caps you proposed--capping dividends and salary--have known workarounds. Stock buybacks exist because they're more tax efficient than dividends. Health insurance is tied to employment because in WWII the U.S. government capped wages.
There is really one solution to corporate malfeasance: criminaly prosecuting where you have evidence of individual criminality and massive fines in every other case. We bankrupted our automakers without hurting their jobs. That's actually less intrusive than trying to fuck with their capital structure by e.g. banning dividends, which just incentivises leverage.
How do either of these help an employee of a company that was just poofed?
> there's holes in these but plenty of smarter people than me who can easily make them watertight
No. There aren't. Both the caps you proposed--capping dividends and salary--have known workarounds. Stock buybacks exist because they're more tax efficient than dividends. Health insurance is tied to employment because in WWII the U.S. government capped wages.
There is really one solution to corporate malfeasance: criminaly prosecuting where you have evidence of individual criminality and massive fines in every other case. We bankrupted our automakers without hurting their jobs. That's actually less intrusive than trying to fuck with their capital structure by e.g. banning dividends, which just incentivises leverage.