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Every company should be owned by its employees

elysian.press

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Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#51
post #24

It's insane how socialism is growing in the west after defeat of soviet union

Individual companies being owned by their employees isn't socialism. For that matter, the Soviet Union wasn't socialist either - the workers owned nothing, the state owned everything. All the land, all the factories, all the manufactured goods.

Yep, that's what it leads to. But it all began with "good" intentions. They destroyed well-developed empire, took the land from the rich and see where it all now. Trust me, you don't want "to take money from the rich and spread them across poor" in USA, it sucks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekulakization. Pleas, keep being a place where anyone can build a unucorn company and become rich af

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#52
I haven’t heard of an ESOP before. As I understand it, this is an (additional?) pension fund where the value of your pension is tied to the company valuation in the form of a promise to sell you stock units when you either retire or leave the company.

Sounds like a nice perk to have but one would obviously be unwise to rely on that for retirement.

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#53
post #36
post #18

I think the most surprising thing about trends in modern executive class pay is just how steep it is compared to the median employee. It makes me wonder why shareholders outside the company are happy with it. For example, the Boeing CEO made 22M in 2022 and 32M in 2023. I'd argue that he did a much worse job in 2023 than in 2022 but somehow got paid almost 50% more. Even Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is "only" being p…

> Even Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is "only" being paid $34M in 2024. 26.6M of that was stock. In percentage terms it's just equity that he effectively handed out before as a founder and is getting back in return for growing the company even more. I don't see a problem with it, considering that the median employee takes almost zero risks and can leave whenever they want.

No, the risk for regular employee is higher due to downside vs upside. Once you cross some wealth threshold, it's not possible to lose everything (e.g. become homeless) unless you do something deliberately stupid like gambling or drugs. There's always plan B if you're rich. Like, rent out property or something.

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#54

How about every employee instead gets money every month, and then can go out an buy shares in any company they want, their own or others?

How does that work when 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck?

When you're not sure if you'll manage to pay the electricity bills to keep your fridge turned on, is your first thought going to be "let's invest in the market!"?

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#55
There are many advantages to having employees own shares in a company. However, I would add that it depends on the industry, type of company and other circumstances.

These are factors that play a role and should add to a more nuanced discussion: - Ownership also implies responsibilities and risk. There might be capital risks or surety needed for certain industries. Not all people want this in their lives. - For any chance of high reward, there is a also a risk of failure/loss. This side is often forgotten and a one-sided view of ownership is often romanticised. - Thus I think a popular discussion of this topic needs to be infused with a more realistic view of reality.

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#57
post #6

It's insane how socialism is growing in the west after defeat of soviet union

is it so insane, in a world of disparity and outsized influence of CEOs and billionaires, where people cannot afford houses? maybe the insane thing was how for hundreds of years we let the rich dictate the rules as if they knew better for having taken advantage of others.

The housing crisis is caused by government policy voted in by locals who dont want their neibhorhoods ti change so block new housing that would lower prices. Which can just as easily happen in a Socialist country since I assume there is still democracy and people havent somehow changed to not be NIMBYS

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#58

How about every employee instead gets money every month, and then can go out an buy shares in any company they want, their own or others?

Why not both? The author hasn't given any indication that the equity given to employees is subsidizing their wage.. It seems like yourself and others are just arguing against a company providing bonus compensation to workers for their work. Peasent brain has grown far and wide these days. Keep slaving away for less compensation, I'd rather not.

Re: Every company should be owned by its employees

#60

How about every employee instead gets money every month, and then can go out an buy shares in any company they want, their own or others?

How does that work when 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck? When you're not sure if you'll manage to pay the electricity bills to keep your fridge turned on, is your first thought going to be "let's invest in the market!"?

Peasent brain, they think they too can be rich like their corporate owners one day so they will support them and justify this brain rotted thinking until they die poor.
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