One concern on the alignment of executive compensation is that it’s especially hard to get executives to care about what happens after they die, unless their perpetual bonds go to their heirs, unlike a regular pension. Even then, they or their heirs can sell those bonds, no? At least in the US, we have laws setting time limits on constraints about how heirs can use or dispose of property left to them.
This is a good point, but I think empirically people don’t really divest/diversify their inheritance? This is something that could be tested. In theory the perpetual bonds of a large eternal company should be some of the safest assets to hold, similar to U.S. bonds. So I don’t think most people will want to sell these for other assets.
When I look at the world’s actually existing very old companies, [...] Do we, or should we expect to, see any signs that these kinds of companies ae unusually motivated to reduce existential risks?
Possibly. I’m not sure we should look at what long-lasting companies do now, since we can’t be sure that they will continue to last long (maybe by now the management has gone bad). It would probably be better to look at how long-lasting companies behaved in the past.
This is a good point, but I think empirically people don’t really divest/diversify their inheritance? This is something that could be tested. In theory the perpetual bonds of a large eternal company should be some of the safest assets to hold, similar to U.S. bonds. So I don’t think most people will want to sell these for other assets.
Possibly. I’m not sure we should look at what long-lasting companies do now, since we can’t be sure that they will continue to last long (maybe by now the management has gone bad). It would probably be better to look at how long-lasting companies behaved in the past.