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There's a solution to that: remove the employers. The end goal of organisation should be worker control.
by garbagetime 6y ago
There's a solution to that: remove the employers.
The end goal of organisation should be worker control.
- HideousKojima 6y agoBarring some non-compete stuff in their contracts, the workers are free to leave and start their own co-op
- mschuster91 6y agoThere is a difference between the legal possibility of doing so, and the practical possibility.
- HideousKojima 6y ago>There is a difference between the legal possibility of doing so, and the practical possibility. Yes, because the existing employer has actually created a lot of value by investing their capital in the business, because providing investment is actually incredibly valuable
- garbagetime 6y agoI hope you're right (although I know you're not): the easier it is, the better. What I'm suggesting isn't meant to be impossible. (of course, it would be easier just to turn an existing company into a co-op, but if co-op start-ups weren't at a massive systematic disadvantage, that would be great)
- eru 6y agoWhat HideousKojima was suggesting that you don't need to ban employers to make cooperatives possible.
- garbagetime 6y agoHe said they were free to. That's the part I disagree with: in fact employees generally aren't free to take the risk to start a new company.
- eru 6y agoWhat keeps them? Just to be clear: I agree that for most people they can earn more money at lower risk and effort working for an established company than starting their own company or cooperative.
- eddyfromtheblok 6y agohow do I ascertain that a software product is made by a co-op? marketing, probably, to be sustainable. what examples are there of well-marketed co-ops? it's not really something that is in the forefront of the collective consciousness. a few knowledgable grocery shoppers, sure, know of Welch's which is owned by the National Grape Coop, and the Green Bay Packers are as a publicly-owned American football team are a stretch for being a coop as owners only have voting rights and not profit reimbursement. I say this as someone who volunteered to run the finances of non-profit co-op housing communities, way back when, that it's a foreign concept for most. Someone needs to differentiate products that don't abuse workers. I could see twitch, etc being an avenue for promotion, of course, but getting a groundswell of streamers into this is another matter.