Politics

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's New Bill Aims To Redistribute Corporate Wealth

Under the proposal, corporations that make over $1 billion per year would have to give employees more say in financial decisions.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's New Bill Aims To Redistribute Corporate Wealth
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Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren aims to redistribute corporate wealth and give employees more power with a new bill she's introduced.

She tweeted about the Accountable Capitalism Act on Wednesday, saying "corporate profits have soared while average wages for Americans haven't budged."

Sen. Warren talked about her plans in a Wall Street Journal editorial Tuesday. In it, she said if a corporation makes more than $1 billion a year, it would be required "to consider the interests of all major corporate stakeholders—not only shareholders—in company decisions."

In other words, employees who don't own stock in the company would still have a say in what happens with it financially. Warren argues that 10 percent of the wealthiest Americans own 84 percent of stocks, so only rich people benefit when companies make decisions that solely benefit stockholders. 

Workers would also be able to elect at least 40 percent of board members, and three-quarters of the company's shareholders and directors would have to approve political spending. 

Critics say the regulations would destroy capitalism and that dishonest companies won't adhere to the new regulations, which would place a bigger burden on the ones that do.