Some people believe that going public with the stock was designed to benefit a narrow and select group of people. That would be:
1) the descendants of the founding fathers and;
2) the already millionaire retired or "about to retire" millionaire managers.
Going public sure wasn't designed to benefit the hourly, PT or FT, employee who buys a token quantity of stock through the payroll deduction program.
I had a rather revealing conversation with the Labor Relations Manager, at the time, about why, suddenly, the Thrift Plan was being dissolved and stock was being made available to the lowly hourly worker and the public.
His position was, "what would the public say if UPS took the employee's Thrift Plan money and then went "tits up" (his words, not mine)?
I said, "I don't know".
He said, "The public would say "look what that company did to those poor people"." (the hourly involved in the Thrift Plan)
He then said," what would the public say if the employees bought stock and the company went "tits up"?
I said, "I don't know". (being the dumb truck driver that I am)
He said, "The public would say, "that's the chance you take when you buy stock"."
Kinda scary isn't it?
I think the company knew that going public would bring more money in for use in investments, acquisitons and operations which, when translated, means "greed".