They shouldn’t be handouts, they should be share purchases. You want Uncle Sam to deus ex machina your greedy ass? Sure, but Uncle Sam now owns 40% of the company.
I would go a step further and say that it should not be a stock purchase but partial nationalization. The government is not getting shares that will be sold later. The government is getting a right to appoint part of the board of directors. Every time the company issues a dividend, buys back stock, or engages in other activities to return value back to the shareholders, a proportional amount of money must be paid to the treasury. It only makes sense that if a company is so big that its failure is going to hurt society as a whole, it should be owned by society.
They shouldn’t be handouts, they should be share purchases. You want Uncle Sam to deus ex machina your greedy ass? Sure, but Uncle Sam now owns 40% of the company.
I would go a step further and say that it should not be a stock purchase but partial nationalization. The government is not getting shares that will be sold later. The government is getting a right to appoint part of the board of directors. Every time the company issues a dividend, buys back stock, or engages in other activities to return value back to the shareholders, a proportional amount of money must be paid to the treasury. It only makes sense that if a company is so big that its failure is going to hurt society as a whole, it should be owned by society.