It seems to me that Mirko has his wires crossed here. What most
mum and dad shareholders want is to stop their money beaing eaten
away by inflation, plus a small, regular return, with comparative
safety, so that they have in income in their old age and don't
need to depend on Govt.

For this reason alot of people invested in REITs, assuming that
property was reasonably safe, but of course they were mistaken.

Where was the problem? Not greedy shareholders, but greedy super
fund managers, who commonly are paid on performance, so they
compete with one another for more impressive looking figures.

IIRC super fund managers control about 1 trillion $, which is
enough to buy the whole ASX. CEOs who don't borrow to the max,
are accused of having "lazy balance sheets". CEOs who don't
perform can be easily ousted by super fund managers, who whom
they are answerable.

Too much borrowing is what has caused companies to get into
trouble yet again.

By what I've read, super fund managers seem to take the view that
they don't care what CEOs are paid, as long as their figures are
impressive.

Greedy super fund managers are not shareholders, they are employees
of the owners of those shares, ie Australian worker