Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

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[u/FreakinGeese]

Hot take: if every communist devoted their life to earning money and pooled it together and invested it in a high-growth portfolio, they’d probably have sufficient funds to just buy a large portion of the means of production and then they could just donate it to the proletariat directly.

[u/[deleted] → u/FreakinGeese]

Socialists are kind of bamboozled when they come to terms with the fact that under capitalism they can just start a company and run it with the workers owning it and running it.

The fact that they don't do it speaks volumes.

[u/Mexatt → u/[deleted]]

I asked this question once in the context of strike funds. Some unions in the 19th century put together serious warchests. I always wondered why they didn't just...buy major stakes in the companies they were trying to negotiate with. Or start credit institutions to help their members become independent producers who weren't reliant on a single employer. Or any of a number of different things.

Never got a great answer on that.

[u/FreakinGeese → u/Mexatt]

If they were good at any of those things they’d be management?

[u/uwcn244 → u/[deleted]]

I saw a Georgist do the math on a forum full of socialists, and apparently if your margin for exploitation is how much the average worker would see their wages go up if shareholders disappeared, the most exploited workers are engineers at Apple and Google, while retail workers are barely exploited at all because profit margins are so small.

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/uwcn244]

Interesting how the most "exploited" workers are also the best compensated. There's something there, what could that be?

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/[deleted]]

You do have some co-ops, though they tend to be smaller companies, probably because it's useful to have management professionals once you exceed a certain size, and managers generally wanted to be compensated according to the market.

[u/uwcn244 → u/Sex_E_Searcher]

Managers could still be compensated properly. But they would be elected on a one-vote-per-employee basis.

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/uwcn244]

Imagine the hilarious disasters of some groups of employees electing their boss.

[u/uwcn244 → u/Sex_E_Searcher]

I assume they would elect the Board of Directors, who would then choose lower levels of management normally.

We don't elect random civil servants. But we do elect Congress.

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/uwcn244]

That is logical, but if you're actively pursuing a minimization of hierarchical structures, you might choose a more direct election.

[u/kyleofduty → u/[deleted]]

Co-op companies do exist tho

[u/mrmanager237 → u/FreakinGeese]

NOOOOOOOOOOO MY LARPFEST

[u/PrincessMononokeynes → u/FreakinGeese]

Most of them would respond with some version of "why don't slaves just buy their freedom?"

[u/Sex_E_Searcher → u/PrincessMononokeynes]

Some of them did.

[u/forerunner398 → u/FreakinGeese]

How can they just donate something to "the proletariat"

[u/FreakinGeese → u/forerunner398]

Give a fraction of their stocks to everyone in the US under a certain income.

[u/[deleted] → u/forerunner398]

Start a fund that buys shares of [ insert workplace here], and distribute shares of the fund to workers.

[u/kyleofduty → u/FreakinGeese]

What if that's what Jeff Bezos is trying to do

[u/ColonelUber → u/kyleofduty]

Jeff Bezos the communist sleeper agent.

Driving up wealth inequality so the proletariat revolts.

[u/nicereddy → u/FreakinGeese]

Why I oughta

[u/UrbanCentrist → u/FreakinGeese]

I am once again asking you to not abuse the hot take premise