Aaron, On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 7:50 AM, Aaron Hosford <[email protected]> wrote:
> An unfortunate consequence of a free market is the unequal >> distribution of wealth. That is why we tax the rich and give to the >> poor. Either way, you benefit. > > > If more businesses were cooperatives, this wouldn't be the case. The free > market alone is not the cause of unequal wealth distribution. It's the > combination of the free market and our cultural habit of accepting the role > of employee versus part owner for those workers who are not central to the > effort. If we as a culture were more in the habit of sharing a small > portion of ownership of a company to motivate people to work in addition to > giving them a paycheck, then when jobs get automated away, everyone would > win instead of just a few. > The problem here is that when you have a MIX of cooperatives and corporations, the corporations amass wealth during good times and eventually overcome the cooperatives. The special advantage of cooperatives is that they can operate at a "loss" (where their employee/owners work for less money) much longer than can corporations, so they are better able to survive bad times. I never cease to be amazed at the companies that go out of business, rather than constructing some sort of employee leveraged buyout deal, to allow the employees to put some sweat equity in to turn the companies around. If stupidity were made to be illegal, this would be at the top of my list. Steve ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
