Fair points.

I vaguely recall a lesson in an economics class, where we learned about how corporations worked in early America - I can't remember if it was before or after the revolution, but in that period. Basically, people would form short term corporations for the purpose of what we'd now call public works - building roads and bridges and canals. For a period after construction, traffic paid a toll, so all investors made a return, and then the toll ended and the corporation wound down.

So maybe that could work again. My point is just that there are more options than theft.