+Tim Harford makes a few excellent points about Nick Clegg's vision of a 'John Lewis economy' of widespread employee share ownership and profit sharing.
He observes that employees have already taken a risk that, should their company perform badly, they may find their salaries reduced, their perks cut or their jobs lost. To ask them to accept some part of their remuneration in company shares, tied to company performance, increases their financial exposure to the one particular company that happens to be their employer.
They might well be better off insisting that that part of their remuneration be paid in cash which they can invest in other companies' performance – because the chance they just happen to be working for the best-performing company they could invest in is rather slim.