3 ms·

I honestly think that in a just society, you would deserve a fraction of the profits, yes. Even if it's some percentage of a cent.

WalterBright 9y ago
I was paid for my time spent there, an amount freely agreed upon by myself and Boeing. How is that not just in every way? I did want a piece of Boeing, though, and I did it the usual way - I bought BA stock. It's now worth something like, 100x what I paid for it. Anyone can get a "piece of the action" of any public corporation by buying shares of it. It'll cost you less than $10 in commission if you use one of the online brokers. Many corporations will also sell employees stock at a discount (usually called an "employee stock purchase plan"). Or they may grant you some stock options.
- archagon 9y ago
  You made a thing that is now part of someone's capital. That person is getting exorbitantly rich far out of proportion both to the effort you put in and to the risk they took in bringing you on. In what ways would the world not be a better place if some of that capital defaulted to its creator? Would this arrangement be any stranger than some of the Byzantine corporate laws we already have to deal with? I'd say that a great number of our societal ills are caused by the top 1% hoarding over 40% of the wealth, and it would be great if we could take steps to correct this injustice systemically. Maybe not even with new laws. Maybe by simply incentivizing more companies to organize as cooperatives. I dunno! But the current system seems unfair, and even if some employees make bank, most of that bank is only human scale — not corporate profit scale, which is what the executives see. Shares aren't really the same thing since they don't grant you royalties; they're really more like supplemental income. IMO.
  - WalterBright 9y ago
    Shares give you a cut of the profits. > That person is getting exorbitantly rich far out of proportion both to the effort you put in and to the risk they took in bringing you on. Investors are always looking everywhere for deals like that, which means in reality they are pretty rare. If you believe you are unfairly compensated for your efforts, you can: 1. quit and get a better deal elsewhere 2. negotiate for a better deal 3. borrow money from a bank/friends/relatives and exploit the opportunity yourself 4. join a workers' collective/cooperative/commune All those are perfectly legal and possible in the US, and people do it all the time.

WalterBright 9y ago

I was paid for my time spent there, an amount freely agreed upon by myself and Boeing. How is that not just in every way? I did want a piece of Boeing, though, and I did it the usual way - I bought BA stock. It's now worth something like, 100x what I paid for it. Anyone can get a "piece of the action" of any public corporation by buying shares of it. It'll cost you less than $10 in commission if you use one of the online brokers. Many corporations will also sell employees stock at a discount (usually called an "employee stock purchase plan"). Or they may grant you some stock options.

archagon 9y ago
You made a thing that is now part of someone's capital. That person is getting exorbitantly rich far out of proportion both to the effort you put in and to the risk they took in bringing you on. In what ways would the world not be a better place if some of that capital defaulted to its creator? Would this arrangement be any stranger than some of the Byzantine corporate laws we already have to deal with? I'd say that a great number of our societal ills are caused by the top 1% hoarding over 40% of the wealth, and it would be great if we could take steps to correct this injustice systemically. Maybe not even with new laws. Maybe by simply incentivizing more companies to organize as cooperatives. I dunno! But the current system seems unfair, and even if some employees make bank, most of that bank is only human scale — not corporate profit scale, which is what the executives see. Shares aren't really the same thing since they don't grant you royalties; they're really more like supplemental income. IMO.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  Shares give you a cut of the profits. > That person is getting exorbitantly rich far out of proportion both to the effort you put in and to the risk they took in bringing you on. Investors are always looking everywhere for deals like that, which means in reality they are pretty rare. If you believe you are unfairly compensated for your efforts, you can: 1. quit and get a better deal elsewhere 2. negotiate for a better deal 3. borrow money from a bank/friends/relatives and exploit the opportunity yourself 4. join a workers' collective/cooperative/commune All those are perfectly legal and possible in the US, and people do it all the time.