jlou

@jlou@mastodon.social

#liberal #anticapitalism

An #EconomicDemocracy is a market economy where most firms are structured as #WorkerCoops.

#liberalism
#coops #cooperatives

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jlou, to politics

Take it from a former banker: the budget is for ordinary people. The mega-rich look on and laugh - Gary Stevenson

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/banker-budget-mega-rich-traders-jeremy-hunt

@politics

jlou,

Capitalism v. communism is certainly a false dilemma. There are other alternatives such as Georgism as you noted. I would go further and advocate a Georgist economic democracy where all firms are structured as worker coops. Similar to the problem you identify with capitalism in that it fails to treat land and capital differently, the mainstream of Georgist thought fails to differentiate labor from capital in an important respect. Labor can't factually be transferred unlike capital @196

jlou,

The challenges you mention don't really refute the main arguments for worker coops, inalienable rights theory, even if they were unsolvable problems that couldn't be solved no matter what other changes were made. Economic democracy aims for workers to get the positive and negative fruits of their labor in property rights terms not value. This is based on the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. Capitalist firms don't satisfy this basic tenet. They are thus illegitimate @196

jlou,

Markets ≠ capitalism

Even an idealized capitalist market economy found in economic models violates workers' inalienable rights. The only way to fix that problem is Economic Democracy where all firms are structured as democratic worker coops @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

I am not redefining Capitalism. I am defining it the way capitalists do. Even in the idealized economic models of fully free market capitalism, capitalism is still wrong. Fully free market capitalism would still inherently violates workers' inalienable rights.

Depends on what is meant by a free market.

Marx's communism is not the only alternative to capitalism. There are market-based alternatives to capitalism as well

jlou, (edited )

The requirement that all firms be worker coops is to protect workers' inalienable rights to democracy and to get the positive and negative fruits of your labor. An inalienable right is a right that cannot be given up or transferred even with consent. These workers' inalienable rights flow from the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. A group of people agreeing to it is not sufficient for validity because responsibility can't be transferred even with consent

jlou, (edited )

There can be investors in market-based postcapitalist society. They just can't hold voting shares, so they hold non-voting preferred stock.

Freedom to structure one's own company as a worker coop doesn't undo the systematic violations of workers' inalienable rights in all the other capitalist firms. The only way to fix that would be turn those firms into worker coops as well

jlou,

Market postcapitalism with worker coops doesn't mean the workers own the means of production. That idea of what postcapitalism looks like is Marxist baggage that needs to move into the dustbin of intellectual history. A worker coop can, for example, lease means of production from another worker coop or individual without violating the workers' inalienable rights to workplace democracy or to get the fruits of their labor @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

The problem isn't the fact that the investors get some value. It is that the employer gets sole property right to the produced outputs and holds all the liabilities for the used-up inputs despite the workers' joint de facto responsibility for using up the inputs to produce the outputs. This mismatch violates the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. Worker don't create output ex nihilo. They use up inputs. Dividends help satisfy those input liabilities @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

You would find David Ellerman's work interesting. He provides strong arguments against capitalism and in favor of a worker coop market economy, and he also addresses the problem of capital allocation. I would recommend to you his book, The Democratic Firm. Here is a link to the book from the author's website: https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DEMOFIRM.pdf @lemmyshitpost

jlou, (edited )

The system is usually called economic democracy because it democratizes the economic sphere. All firms in economic democracy are required to be worker coops. As a result, voting shares are exclusively held by those that are actually working the firm. Non-voting preferred stock can be free floating property rights that can be held by outside investors. it is democratic because only the people actually governed in the firm (i.e. workers) have voting rights over management

jlou,

There is no reason why only workers should own the means of production nor why the means of production a firm uses must be owned by the workers of the same firm. Leasing out means of production to other firms is a perfectly valid way for worker coops to exchange products of labor. What is illegitimate is the employment contract as it violates inalienable rights. There are distributive justice and efficiency arguments for common ownership of capital, but that includes non-workers

jlou,

The point is not necessarily about profit rather about what the profit comes from namely the positive (property rights to produced outputs) and negative product (liabilities for used-up inputs), which together are the whole product. A basic tenet of justice that capitalism violates is that legal and de facto responsibility should match. In a worker coop, the workers are held jointly legally responsible for the whole product matching their de facto responsibility for producing it @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

The workers aren't exploited in a worker coop. The workers jointly appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. The workers don't create the product ex nihilo they use up inputs (e.g. the services of capital). Paying lease is satisfaction of liabilities for using up capital services. Leasing out labor's product allows workers to sell a part of the product's services rather than sell the entire product. The employment contract gives the employer the product @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

The payment to investors in this case isn't based on a non-worker solely appropriating the fruits of labor. The payment is satisfaction of the liability workers jointly appropriate as part of the negative product. Paying covers the costs of the negative product. It is compensation to the investors for the capital they supplied and the work they did building up that much capital @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

You're right that wasn't very clear.

Capitalism is exploitative due to the employment contract not non-worker capital ownership. The employment contract is bad because it gives the employer 100% of the property right to the produced output (i.e. ownership of new cars in a car firm) and 100% of the liabilities for the used-up inputs (i.e. factory machine services) while employees get 0%. The workers don't create the output out of nothing they use input materials @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

No @lemmyshitpost

jlou,

I would have 100% of voting shares be inalienably attached to all workers in the firm. Non-voting preferred stock can continue to be free floating property rights @canada

jlou, to technology

Apple Is Trying to Kill the Open Internet!

https://youtu.be/up-zUEFNMww

@technology

jlou, to technology

Silicon Valley’s ideology is this: Libertarianism for me. Feudalism for thee.

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/11/15/silicon-valleys-worldview-is-not-just-an-ideology-its-a-personality-disorder/#more-52003

@technology

jlou,

Worker-owned companies are certainly rooted in anti-capitalist thought, but they aren't inherently socialist in the 20th century sense because they are compatible with private property

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