Bill Ackman has been making the same proposal for six years. Hand every American $6,750 at birth, put it in a zero-cost equity index fund, forbid anyone from touching it until retirement, and let it compound tax-free. By 65, he says, it is worth more than $1 million. He first wrote it up in an essay for The New York Times in 2020, and he was still making the case to Fortune this July.
His reason for wanting it is not really about retirement. “Everyone, in my view, needs to participate in capitalism,” he told the magazine. “Otherwise, you're going to prefer socialism.” Recalling a conversation with President Donald Trump at a gathering of Wall Street figures at the White House late last year, he said he made the point this way: “We've got a meaningful percentage of the country who, when the stock market goes up, they're not participating. If anything, they get resentful.”
