Article (C-1-s) In the CAC 40, which owns and profits the most without paying[Article (C-1-s) Dans le CAC 40 qui possède et profite le plus sans payer]

Drawing on the financial statements¹ for the 2022 or 2023 financial years of the leading CAC 40 companies, this article demonstrates the extent to which shareholders appropriate assets (the means of production) without paying for them out of their own pockets – far from it – and then derive income from them by virtue of being their rightful owners. This article uses figures to illustrate our articles in the section ‘Analysing contemporary capitalism through the prism of the means of production' in our journal, in particular the article entitled ‘Who pays for and appropriates the means of production?'. Firstly, this article (a-) outlines the financial mechanisms of ‘leverage' and ‘share buy-backs', made possible by two legal realities: (1-) the laws of the 1860s on ‘limited liability' and (2-) the collective of employees, who are not legal entities (and therefore, even if they pay, it cannot be an owner) and (b-) presents the ‘balance sheet', as this mandatory financial and tax document enables the effects of these processes to be assessed, before summarising our view of economic activity by considering only ‘shareholders' and the ‘collective of employees'. Finally, this article comments on the results of a number of companies, selected from those whose financial data are presented in the table in the ‘performance' appendix for CAC 40 companies. More and more politicians are speaking out against shareholder remuneration, but, unfortunately, they merely propose taxing it – particularly share ‘buy-backs'¹ – rather than tackling the root of the problem: a collective of employees recognised as legal entities, so that they have ownership rights over what they pay for, just like any other shareholder.