Analysing dividends for the 100 largest non-financial, UK-domiciled firms on a database managed by the credit ratings agency Moody’s, it found that payouts had steadily risen since 2011 and were equivalent to 68% of the companies’ net profits.
The study also found that 700 executives at 86 of the companies held a collective £6bn in shares at their firms, representing nearly £8.5m per director.
Mathew Lawrence, an academic, said: “Shifts in ownership and company rules have turned the corporation into an engine of wealth extraction for senior management and shareholders. Companies have become less resilient and more unequal as a result.”
As expected though the only proposals being offered is not system change but to “transform ownership to make business democratic and sustainable” – to fix capitalism, an impossible task rather than do away with it.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/400bn-paid-in-dividends-by-uk-companies-before-coronavirus-crisis