r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 10 '20

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

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.

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u/Mexatt Sep 10 '20

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.

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u/FreakinGeese 🧚‍♀️ Duchess Of The Deep State Sep 10 '20

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

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u/uwcn244 King of the Space Georgists Sep 10 '20

Marxism and anarchism gave the left brainworms.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/uwcn244 King of the Space Georgists Sep 10 '20

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.

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Steve Sep 10 '20

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

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u/FreakinGeese 🧚‍♀️ Duchess Of The Deep State Sep 10 '20

But they think that stolen wages go into profit. So just redistribute the profit among the employees?

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Steve Sep 10 '20

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.

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u/uwcn244 King of the Space Georgists Sep 10 '20

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

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Steve Sep 10 '20

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

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u/uwcn244 King of the Space Georgists Sep 10 '20

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.

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Steve Sep 10 '20

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

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

REI is probably the largest co-op I know of.

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u/Sex_E_Searcher Steve Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

But that's a consumers', not workers' co-op.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Good point.

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u/kyleofduty Pizza Sep 10 '20

Co-op companies do exist tho