comment: >
  
  There are always statistical outliers, but we don't build systems around them.  People have fallen out of airplanes at 30,000 feet and lived, so you should feel perfectly safe jumping out of one without a parachute, right?
context: like /u/kawkxp71 said, stock buybacks were not "illegal" before.  10b-18 is about the anti-manipulation laws, which are there to protect investors in the stock market, not the rest of us.  I happen to be a securities lawyer so I'll just share that 10b-18 is a kind of safe harbor also, so a company doesn't HAVE to use it, and it also doesn't apply to every situation.  I am sure it made companies feel safer to do buybacks, but I doubt 10b-18 is the only thing that made buybacks more popular.  
  In my experience, public company boards have done buybacks when they have a lot of surplus capital and the directors can't figure out a good way to invest it.  Often what they want to do if they have a lot of extra cash is go buy more companies and grow their business.  
  But sometimes they may have tapped out that growth.  
  Also, operating companies have to be careful about investing too much in actual securities because then they could wind up accidentally turning into an "investment company" which would be a disaster.  So they may not be able to or want or have internal expertise to invest in something besides more operations.
  However, directors are fiduciaries and have to do something profitable with the company's assets.  they can't just let it sit there in a checking account.
  I am liberal and would actually wish they would use that extra money to pay workers better, frankly.  But I don't think securities regulation is a good tool for trying to make that reform happen.
  I like the idea of making workers part owners, and wish more companies would do that, and on a wider scale.
  Better yet, I would like to see our economy move to more public benefit corporations.
  I think the problem is that it's hard to get a business off the ground without investment, and you can't get the capital for free.  So right from the start, the shareholders and lenders dictate all the terms.  It's a stacked deck. :( >
  
  Most companies (as cited in other post) give RSUs to employees. These stock are given using treasury stock which come from buybacks. If the government wanted to make a policy mandate on business they could say for sufficiently large enough public companies they needed to provide X% of staff with RSUs or equity compensation or they could mandate company funded pensions. Not sure that makes sense from an economic perspective but it would increase worker ownership / increased compensation. >
  
  They weren't illegal before hand.
  The law wasn't clear if they were a form of stock price manipulation.  So most companies stayed away from it, but they still happened.
  The sec simply clarified when it is perfectly legal.
  It's should be no more or less illegal, than issuing more stock to raise capital...
  If they no longer have the need for the capital, they should buy the shares back to gain more control of their company. >
  
  25% to buy back stocks, 75% to the workers without whom the profits wouldn't exist. >
  
  What risk did the workers have? Did they invest money? Take pay cuts? Or did they simply come to work and get paid?
  Did they come up with the plan for the needed capital? 
  Why would the majority of excess capital go to people who already got paid for the job they did? >
  
  I can’t wait till someday when all I have to do is risk a small portion of my fortune instead of waking up at a god awful hour to go to work.
  I can’t wait to have to make that sacrifice. >
  
  Life choices have ramifications. >
  
  I’ll remember for the next reincarnation to be born into wealth. >
  
  You don't have to be born into wealth. Statistics back this up. >
  
  Oh really? Because economist can tell you exactly how much you will make in your life based on your zipcode. Explain that then >
  
  I don’t know what to tell you. There is no shortage of examples of working class people becoming wealthy. It’s obviously not the norm, but it happens all the time.