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The labor class is free to form collectives and cooperatives. There's no law against it. Bezos started Amazon with $300,000. I'm sure it wouldn't take too long
by WalterBright 1y ago
The labor class is free to form collectives and cooperatives. There's no law against it.
Bezos started Amazon with $300,000. I'm sure it wouldn't take too long for workers to raise that kind of money, after all, $300,000 to buy a house is considered cheap.
On the other hand, the history of businesses being confiscated and handed over to the workers has not been a successful one.
- azemetre 1y agoThe labor class should also advocate for workplace democracy to fight back. Workers should be able to vote for their bosses. Democratic societies are good for human flourishing. The only way to flourish is to have a thriving middle class. Workplace democracy would be a boon for labor.
- whatshisface 1y agoBut startups are worker-owned, insofar as the founders are able to profit from it.
- WalterBright 1y agoSome startups are worker-owned through stock grants, but those grants are rarely evenly distributed. The founders hold the majority as long as they can. It is a good practice for companies to include stock as part of the pay package. It encourages alignment of the company with the employees. Very, very successful companies follow this model, such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.
- whatshisface 1y agoIt seems to indicate that if Amazon was employee-owned today, the first thing they would vote to do is convert future hires into non-owners, because that's what the founders did when it was actually employee-owned.
- KerrAvon 1y agoNot entirely sure what you're saying here. Amazon still provides stock to employees as part of the comp package, AFAIK.
- curmudgeon22 1y agoI mean, it probably depends on the type of employee. I assume folks doing deliveries or working in warehouses aren't getting stock packages. I wonder if the admin or accounting folks do.
- mm263 1y ago$600,000 after inflation