"The Corporation" Theoretical question

[henrikrh]

I watched the movie "the corporation", very good, informative and coherant. Left me wondering, and bare (bare or bear? I feel dumb) with me here because I don't know much about business, if a corperation is legally treated as an individual, could a real individual (me) go public and sell shares of myself on the stock market? Say I wanted to float 49% of me in shares, keep 51% for myself, maybe I get a better job and my stock goes up, float some more shares, whatever.

Is this crazy enough to be going somewhere or just plain retarded?

[Evan]

A corporation is treated as an "individual", but not in the same sense you are. There are different rules. You could issue shares of a corporation that you run, you could not issue shares of "yourself". The guidelines for doing this depend on the state you live in, how much money you intend to raise and how many shareholders you intend to have. Your stock would not go up or down in the sense that you are thinking because it would not be publicly traded. Getting a stock listed on a public exchange is VERY hard.

Basically this isn't going to work.

Why would you want to sell half of yourself, anyway?

[DesertCat]

I didn't see the film, but David Bowie sold all the royalties to his songs in a bond offering. I would imagine they created a corporation to hold the royalties, and it sold the bonds. Not the same thing, but the closest I can think of. And I don't think it worked out well for the bond buyers.

[squiffy]

Well, this is already done, on an informal basis, by poker players who are selling a piece of their action in a tournament. Though that is also a form of insurance or risk-spreading.

As an individual, you don't have as much to offer as a true corporation. But perhaps, if you had high earning potential, there could be a way to raise money based on your talent and likely earning ability.

In America, if you have something valuable, there is probably a way to package it and sell it.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
Why would you want to sell half of yourself, anyway?

[/ QUOTE ]

What if, instead of college loans, you could sell equity in yourself? Or a scout for a team could go around to inner-city basketball courts and buy small percentages of the skilled kids, in the hopes that one gets good enough to go to the pros and make a bunch of money?

What if, in addition to the debt we can already issue and the equity we talk about now, you could issue options on yourself? Sell off some percentage of your income stream above some benchmark in the future for cash now?

Why doesn't this exist already? I suppose the problem is how similar issuing equity in yourself is to slavery.

[Sniper]

An individual can get debt financing, by taking out a personal loan, or using credit cards.

An individual can get equity financing, by forming a corporation and taking in private investments.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
An individual can get debt financing, by taking out a personal loan, or using credit cards.

An individual can get equity financing, by forming a corporation and taking in private investments.

[/ QUOTE ]

meh. I still think the most attractive option is setting up a corporation and selling call options on it, but valuation of them would be pretty damn tough.

[BradleyT]

Come up with a good business plan and people may buy you.