> It is oriented to appeasing stockholders (investors), who want to see earnings grow.
This strategy appeases short-term shareholders, at the cost of significantly penalizing long-term holders. It's not a simple case of "appeasing shareholders".
My point is that shareholder capitalism doesn't necessarily lead to the short-term focus you describe. Shareholders can in fact be the group with the longest-term focus of all. They can still be there and care about the company long after the current C-suite are all gone.
While it's certainly possible for that to be true, it isn't in reality. The average holding period of a stock is 5.5 months.
People have proposed to not give people voting power as shareholders until they've held the stock for a period, because there is this huge population of investors that care nothing for the long term viability of thr company.
I don't think I have communicated what I meant. Stock traders would be people who trade stocks looking for return on investment through trading, not from investing in a company by holding stock.
This strategy appeases short-term shareholders, at the cost of significantly penalizing long-term holders. It's not a simple case of "appeasing shareholders".