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Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

bocoup.com

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Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#41

Post by TheMagicHorsey »

Never heard of these guys. Do they do good work?

I know of several examples of worker-owned coups where the product is excellent: Cheeseboard pizza in Berkeley, Moog synthesizers, etc.

I've always wondered whether this model could extend to cutting edge technology, where the contributions of a few extremely talented individuals could be the decisive factor.

That's not to say Bocoup is limited by this question, because it could be their work does not require any cutting edge research, but instead is deploying existing stable technologies in an artisan/workman/guildsman like professional manner--which I think is the sweet spot for worker-owned/worker-directed activities.

Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#42

Post by ForTheKidz »

tonymet wrote: post #38
ForTheKidz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

• Stable employment • Democratic workplace • You can have input in whether to optimize for longevity or short-term profit. • If you do choose to have a profit-sharing, you experience arguably proportional reward for the work you invest. • Unions are less necessary if you don't need to actively organize to engage in democratic decision structures. These are examples of qualities that I've found that appear to be desir…

i mean in reality . any that worked?

I would say the same thing about for-profit joint-stock ownership, I think there's a lot of subjective value embedded in ideology of the political economy. Especially when combined with VC-funding it can provide growth, but growth was never the primary pitch—it was collectively-rational division of resources, services, and labor. On that mark, our globalized division of resources strikes me as having failed on the face of it. No smartphone is flashy enough to fully occlude the enormously inequitable division of labor that produced it, nor the enormous political-economic consequences of such coercion.

Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#43

Post by tonymet »

ForTheKidz wrote: post #42
tonymet wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i mean in reality . any that worked?

I would say the same thing about for-profit joint-stock ownership, I think there's a lot of subjective value embedded in ideology of the political economy. Especially when combined with VC-funding it can provide growth, but growth was never the primary pitch—it was collectively-rational division of resources, services, and labor. On that mark, our globalized division of resources strikes me as having failed on the fa…

so the more of this I read, the more it sounds like an impractical assessment

Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#44

Post by jjj123 »

ForTheKidz wrote: post #14
bombcar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coops are basically geared toward mediocre success - because there's really no pressure to risk aiming for amazing/startup-style success. Ownership structure doesn't change many of the business risks, but coops can avoid the "expand or die" that sometimes normal companies experience. The largest coops are mutuals (think: insurance) and banks (think: credit union). Others exist in farmer's coops (Land o' Lakes, Dairy…

> Coops are basically geared toward mediocre success - because there's really no pressure to risk aiming for amazing/startup-style success. I'm just straight-up offended at this. Co-ops are the job most people want. What you refer to as "amazing success" is dismantling our society and the people who run them appear to struggle to empathize with other humans. Granted, i'm sure coops can be equally antisocial and misan…

I think you and I have the same values but I wasn’t offended by the parent comment at all.

It’s clear they meant success as in success in profit and growth, and in that lens, coops do tend towards mediocre success because incentives are different. But I don’t see that as a bad thing, and I don’t think OP does either?

Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#45

Post by Tr3nton »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #28
Tr3nton wrote: post #7

Browsing the barebones site and reading the Code of Conduct, I get the sense that political activism is a higher priority than engineering. There's a dedicated BLM page, where they honor George Floyd, but not the woman who was pistol-whipped by Floyd and his crew during an armed robbery, while the woman was home alone with her children.[1] I am aware that this is wrongthink. Americans rejected this worldview in the r…

> While I have no issue with people advocating for their flavor of justice Really? Because I'm getting extremely strong "I have an issue with people advocating for this kind of justice" vibes from your comment here. Might want to take a look again if you didn't intend that.

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Re: Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

#46

Post by Tr3nton »

text0404 wrote: post #18
Tr3nton wrote: post #7

Browsing the barebones site and reading the Code of Conduct, I get the sense that political activism is a higher priority than engineering. There's a dedicated BLM page, where they honor George Floyd, but not the woman who was pistol-whipped by Floyd and his crew during an armed robbery, while the woman was home alone with her children.[1] I am aware that this is wrongthink. Americans rejected this worldview in the r…

hi, American here. i didn't reject this worldview - a portion of eligible voters rejected it. maybe their principles are more important to them than "current climate" and a profit motive? if you don't care for it, don't hire them - i'm sure they wouldn't want to work with you anyway as your values seem completely incompatible.

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