In the airline and railroad industry, the oil and gas industry, in entertainment, and in food -- companies spent over $1 trillion on stock buybacks last year.

That’s money they could’ve spent investing in workers’ wages, benefits or working conditions. They could’ve invested in industry innovation or expanding products and services. They could’ve actually invested in their company, improving its value and stability… for real.

Instead, CEOs spent it on themselves using a Wall Street magic trick to enrich wealthy insiders at the expense of workers. That’s what stock buybacks are. It’s what it’s called when a company buys its own stock to decrease the amount of shares on the market and raise the worth of the remaining shares. It’s also called market manipulation and it used to be illegal.

The real-life consequences of investments directed towards stock buybacks instead of more productive channels like safety upgrades or workers’ wages are all around us.

Take Chevron for example: They made headlines when they announced plans to spend $10 billion on low carbon energy development by 2028. A year later, management turned around and announced it would spend $75 billion on stock buybacks. If you do the math, that’s more than seven times the amount being invested in the future, instead, wasted on corporate greed, making it pretty clear Chevron’s actual priorities.

The long term solution is clear. We should ban stock buybacks and make market manipulation illegal again. In the short term, there’s real momentum in Congress to pass the Stock Buybacks Act which would increase the tax from 1% to 4% and create a significant disincentive for many corporations moving forward.

Check out our exclusive report and then demand Congress pass the Stock Buyback Act by adding your name now.