More as food for thought… but maybe “broad investor base” is a bit of exaggeration? Index funds are likely to control a significant fraction of these corporations, and it’s unclear if the board members they appoint would represent ordinary people. Especially when owning ETF != owning actual underlying stocks.
Due to the rise of index funds (they “own” > 1⁄5 of American public companies), it seems that an alternative strategy might be trying to rise in the ranks of firms like BlackRock, Vanguard, or SSGA. It’s not unprecedented for them to take action (partly for selfish reasons); here are examples of BlackRock taking stances on environmental sustainability and coronavirus cure/vaccine.
More as food for thought… but maybe “broad investor base” is a bit of exaggeration? Index funds are likely to control a significant fraction of these corporations, and it’s unclear if the board members they appoint would represent ordinary people. Especially when owning ETF != owning actual underlying stocks.
From an old comment of mine: