&gt; You pay someone to take something you own if the asset is a liability<p>Owning a stock is different from owning a house.<p>Owning a stock is never a liability. Never would a stock go negative dollars. Even if the management team and the board of directors killed a billion people or robbed an entire nation while killing everyone in that nation, the common stock holder won&#x27;t go to prison or be sued. The stock will be toilet paper. You can at the worst sell it for $0.<p>Basic Finance 101.