You may or may not appreciate the finer points of shareholder activism. I've been to my fair share of annual shareholder meetings and even chaired a couple. Come proxy time, I find most shareholder sponsored motions either ignorant or insulting, depending on what side of the bed I woke up on.
They clearly don't understand the sole objective of a publicly-traded company is to make insanely larger profits than their competitors. Personally, I think shareholder activists tend to be in search for their 15 minutes of Andy Warhol-promised fame. My idea of shareholder activism is placing a sell order.
Still, beyond the entertainment value, shareholder activism represents those age-old American values of equality, freedom and Town Hall democracy. I don't seek to prevent shareholders from exercising their right to stand up in front of confirmed capitalists and ask them to cap their capital.
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
