51–60 of 83 posts
Worker-owned coops are the kind of Communism that a capitalist can really get behind. Good show. Also, Arizmendi Bakery is in fact delicious.
Owner-owned corporations are the kind of Feudalism that a capitalist can really get behind.
Worker-owned coops are the kind of Communism that a capitalist can really get behind. Good show. Also, Arizmendi Bakery is in fact delicious.
If, for instance, technology shifts over time such that a large-scale corporate system becomes optimal, the capitalistic society can shift with it. And if technology changes so that the optimal situation becomes a much large set of smaller, nimbler competitors, which is probably where we're currently going, we don't have to have a bloody revolution to permit new organizations to be adopted. And at no time is there a contradiction between a co-op, a centrally-managed company, a hierarchy-less Valve-style company, and a non-profit all operating in the same space.
My children attended a charter high school run as a teacher's co-op - no principal or formal administration. It works very well, although I'm not sure it would scale as a model. Certainly, I've never seen such high levels of teacher satisfaction anywhere else, and I'm sure the cost of a principal and assistant principal easily funds three more teachers - a big deal at a small school.
I ask because teachers in secondary schools seem to be under much more pressure to ensure their students pass standardised exams to enter higher education, whereas there's much more wiggle-room for alternative methodologies at younger ages. It'd be good to see some innovation at the secondary level, rather than just attempting to keep up with what examiners require.
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Long term I have wondered if co-op will end up dominating less capital intensive businesses. The downside is an inability to raise outside capital however they don't need to fund profits which allows them to operate on leaner margins which could presumably push out traditional businesses and simply grow.
As technology moves forward, all businesses slowly become non-capital intensive businesses.
I, for one, need a boss. I don't necessarily need that person to tell me what to do, but I do need someone to remind me that the things that I do, whatever they may be, should be in the best interests of our company and its revenue stream. And I need someone to give me positive and negative feedback on my work, so I can improve my own productivity. What I really don't need is owners that are not personally involved i…
> I, for one, need a boss. I don't necessarily need that person to tell me what to do, but I do need someone to remind me that the things that I do, whatever they may be, should be in the best interests of our company and its revenue stream. And I need someone to give me positive and negative feedback on my work, so I can improve my own productivity. Why can't coworkers do that?
Worker-owned coops are the kind of Communism that a capitalist can really get behind. Good show. Also, Arizmendi Bakery is in fact delicious.
One of the strengths of capitalism is that it does not philosophically insist that the macroeconomic system must match all microeconomic systems, enabling local adaptations to changing conditions without global-level upheavals. It is not part of the capitalistic ethos that all organizations must be run on the same principles. Contrast this with philosophies like Communism that claims to have The One Answer To All Pro…
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Lovely bit of history... the anarcho-syndicalists were the third element of the Spanish Civil War. And if there's one thing the fascists and communists could agree on, it was that both hated the anarchists more than they hated each other. Unfortunately, when you organize at the level of a farm or a factory, you're no match for an enemy that can throw 1000 troops at you in order to crush you. Noam Chomsky's history of…
Instead of reading Noam Chomsky's propaganda written from great distance (knowing that Chomsky has been an apologist for e.g. the Khmer Rouge), just read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia where he relates direct experience. Or any other primary source.
By my reading, this is an overstatement. My understanding, having dug into the issue a bit some years back, is that he was skeptical of the reporting; arguably overly skeptical, and certainly incorrect in retrospect, but that's not quite the same thing as supporting or condoning.
A worker co-operative seems like the ideal corporate structure for the typical consulting software shop. It can be set up to be very corporate-like or it can be set up as a loose group of freelancers who pooled together to share a health insurance plan, or anything in between.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lovely bit of history... the anarcho-syndicalists were the third element of the Spanish Civil War. And if there's one thing the fascists and communists could agree on, it was that both hated the anarchists more than they hated each other. Unfortunately, when you organize at the level of a farm or a factory, you're no match for an enemy that can throw 1000 troops at you in order to crush you. Noam Chomsky's history of…
Instead of reading Noam Chomsky's propaganda written from great distance (knowing that Chomsky has been an apologist for e.g. the Khmer Rouge), just read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia where he relates direct experience. Or any other primary source.