[Guvante]

What capital gains? The governments balance sheet doesn't matter...

Think of it like the original Bitcoin wallet, its value is $0 because none of those will ever be sold.

If dividends are involved it could matter but the government basically gets 20% of dividends already and extra 4% doesn't make a huge difference.

Returning to blocking stock buybacks as price manipulation and forcing businesses to give out dividends again would actually impact revenue in a meaningful way in contrast.

[skybrian]

Dividends and stock buybacks are equivalent except for the tax consequences. Money is flowing from the company to investors. If, say, the government had 20% of the stock and sold it into the buyback to remain at 20%, that's similar to a dividend.

So this ends up being equivalent to taxes on both dividends and buybacks (and other economic participation like buyouts from mergers), except that no investor in particular has to pay the tax.

[Guvante]

"Ignoring tax consequences" when talking about government funding? That makes your entire response worthless.