Congress Just Proposed a $4 Trillion Bribe to Get Bezos and Zuck to Share the Pie With Employees

It’s wild, but true: the guy currently leading the mayoral race in New York City wants to abolish private grocery stores, defund the police, and replace them with therapists. (Because clearly, what the Big Apple needs most is fewer cops and more licensed social workers on scooters.)

(Source: Bloomberg)

His name is Zohran Mamdani… and while it might be tough for me to spell (I’ll admit it took a couple tries), his policies are easy to summarize: tax the hell out of the rich, let the government run the cereal aisle, and hope nobody calls 911 in a real emergency.

And the craziest part is that he’s winning. It might sound like Gotham has fully lost the plot, but there’s a deeper message under all this: Americans (especially those getting crushed in the middle) are done waiting for things to get better. They’re tired of watching their paychecks evaporate while the top 10% fly private and quietly control 93% of the stock market. (Yes, that’s a real stat).

So when someone like Mamdani pops up with radical, burn-it-all-down ideas, people don’t flock to him because they want Soviet Safeway. They flock to him because he’s the only one acknowledging they’ve been getting screwed… and they’re desperate enough to try anything that sounds different (even if it sounds like it was pulled straight from Karl Marx’s group chat). But while NYC voters consider turning Whole Foods into “People’s Produce #12,” something unexpected is happening down in D.C.: Congress might’ve actually had a good idea (I know, I’m confused too).

It’s called the SHARE Act, short for Shareholder Allocation for Rewards to Employees, and shockingly, it didn’t come from Reddit or a protest sign. It’s a real bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), and it just might be the most middle-class-friendly legislation we’ve seen in years.

(Source: CNBC)

Here’s the pitch: If a public company gives at least 5% of its stock to the bottom 80% of its workforce, it gets a 3 percentage point cut on its corporate tax rate. That means companies like Amazon, Walmart, or Target could drop their tax rate from 21% to 18% (potentially saving billions) just by giving real ownership to the people who actually make the place run.

And we’re not talking about shady stock options that vest in 2043 or some token “equity” program that comes with a branded tote bag. This is real, tax-free stock. Actual ownership. The kind that can grow over time and help people build wealth… unless, of course, your employer is Peloton… in which case, well, thoughts and prayers.

According to Rep. Tom Suozzi, the SHARE Act could allegedly transfer between $3 to $4 trillion in equity into the hands of 40 million working Americans. Now, do I fully buy that number? Eh, I’ll believe it when I see a janitor with a seven-figure brokerage account. But hey… at least it's not socialism. Or at least not the “seize the means of production and nationalize the Pop-Tart factory” version. This is still capitalism… just with a few more chairs pulled up to the table.

Instead of mandates or wealth taxes, the government is dangling a fat carrot: hand over some of your company’s stock to the people who keep the lights on, and we’ll give you a 3% cut on your corporate tax rate. That’s it. Incentives over force. Honestly… kind of refreshing.

And it’s not an all-or-nothing deal. Companies don’t need to fork over 5% of their shares overnight. They can ease into it… just 1% in a single year gets them in the door. And for the huge companies like Microsoft, Costco, or Amazon, there’s a cap: $250,000 worth of stock per employee. So nobody has to worry that Dave in IT is going to start submitting shareholder proposals about putting Hot Cheetos in the vending machines.

Now, of course, there’s a catch. There’s always a catch. And this one’s called dilution. Giving stock to employees means issuing new shares or reallocating existing ones, which increases the total share count and can nudge the stock price down temporarily. (Cue the usual pearl-clutching from Wall Street analysts… the same ones who lose their minds any time a company spends money on anything that isn’t a buyback.)

But as we all know, when workers have skin in the game, they tend to act like they own the place. Because, well… they do. Turnover drops. Productivity rises. Karen from finance stops rage-quitting mid-Zoom and actually starts giving a damn. And the company gets more loyalty in return… not to mention that sweet 3% tax cut, which, for a company with $10 billion in annual profit, equals $300 million straight to the bottom line. What they’re talking about isn’t some “feel-good initiative.” It's a real strategy with teeth. And frankly, it might outperform half the stock buybacks CEOs keep greenlighting just to juice their own comp packages.

Now, of course, the SHARE Act isn’t perfect. It excludes private companies, so it’s not a cure-all. And yeah, it’s probably going to give a few CFOs an ulcer. Legal departments are gonna love trying to figure out how to structure this without triggering a compliance nightmare. And some executives will absolutely hate it… especially the ones who think “employee ownership” just means letting interns vote on pizza toppings.

But compared to handing the grocery supply over to City Hall and hoping someone who’s never run a bodega can manage national food logistics? This is shockingly sane. For once, Congress isn’t bickering over who gets the crumbs… they’re actually trying to give the workers a real slice of the cake and companies an incentive to actually do it.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon and Microsoft as mentioned in the article.