What is and isn’t

Last week, I saw someone share a post on LinkedIn that exemplified one of the greatest logical deficits we face in America today.

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx and, as my wife tells me, an all-around cool gal, gave each of her employees $10,000 as a gift. For those of you who are not so good with numbers, that is precisely 10,000 more dollars than her employees would have had if she had chosen not to give them that money.

And yet the post I saw criticized Ms. Blakely for giving each employee cash instead of… wait for it… equity – ownership – in her company. Not only that, but it was suggested that the government mandate employee equity for companies of a certain size.

Let me first point out the obvious fact that the company belongs to Sara Blakely. It is not someone else’s to divvy up among others, period. She took the risk of starting it, put her own money into it, built it, promoted it tirelessly. Her employees all agreed to a fixed amount of money, called a salary, in exchange for some quantity and quality of work they would provide the company in return. They are only responsible for their job and share none of the debts, pressures, or other massive and broad responsibilities that Sara Blakely shoulders each day. They could also leave at any time because they owe the company nothing beyond agreed upon production of some kind.

If they want a company that gives all employees equity, they can quit and try to find that company. Or start one of their own, if they have the guts. But to tell Ms. Blakely, or every company for that matter, that she must give away part of her business is ludicrous. Which leads me to my next point…

Nobody is demanding that you give up equity in the stuff you own.

If you own a house, you might pay a plumber a fixed amount of money to repair your toilet. You might pay a landscaping service to cut your grass. You might pay someone to paint your walls. Do they get equity in your home? Why not? They worked so hard to help make it a better place!

If you take your car to a body shop for repairs, do they get ownership of your car? What about AAA towing your car 50 miles to get it to that body shop? Do they get equity in your car? If so, how much equity do they get and on what basis? Do harder workers get more equity or the same? Does IQ or education or any other variable affect how much equity you have to give up? Is that ownership transferable to others?

There is no “fair” or “reasonable” way to steal things from people and give it to others, since stealing is neither fair nor reasonable.

The logical conclusion of the kind of narrow-minded argument this individual made is self-evident, if only people are willing to think long enough to actually reach that conclusion. Unfortunately, most aren’t.

My final point, and a concern specifically about who we are as Americans today. Sara Blakely gifted her employees $10,000. Instead of expressing gratitude for what is, we complain about what isn’t. People are upset that someone didn’t “do generosity” the way they claim they would have done it. It’s easy to claim moral superiority when you’re simply demanding other people give their stuff away instead of you.

Maybe we should just be grateful that there are generous people like Sara Blakely and not try to dictate in what precise way they should be generous. Go start your own company and give employees equity if that’s what you want. But stop telling others what to do with what they have.