AskProfWolff: Automation & Worker Co-ops

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A patron of Economic Update asks: "How would worker ownership work for industries that are highly automated and/or have high capital valuation per employee (i.e. Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, commercial leasing / rental companies with many properties.)? Some industries have low capital value and others high capital value per employee. How would an economic system establish a general sense of equity across such differing sectors of the economy?"

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[philinnc]

On the size of co-ops: I couldn't help but think of a similar problem that we had in enterprise application development around 15 years ago, when increasingly large and complex mounds of code made monolithic programs unsustainable. The solution was to modularize, break up those programs into smaller, more manageable, units. Today it's common for even the biggest, most expensive, web applications to be deployed as individual, redundant, microservices that work together to provide the functionality that used to be achieved with monolithic applications.

[miguelthealpaca]

I especially liked the part about workers being able to move into another workplace, to produce something else, instead of losing their job because of a changing market situation or redundancy. That'd be wonderful! It's frustrating that the world doesn't operate like this at the moment.

[alrizo]

I think In a big production company, the participants can assign leaders in which they give him the authority to lead the team. But still the power is in the collective when evaluating him of his capability to lead. The rules depends on what was agreed in the contract, of course.

[Queenie-the-genie]

Thank you Professor - I love the idea of small, localized worker coops everywhere. I would like to
see the end of giant corporations and hierarchies. Maybe we will wind up having very little choice if we
want to survive. I often wonder about the pursuit of happiness by the very rich. Are they happy yet?
I don't think so and I doubt that they ever will until they realize it is an endless, stressful and miserable pursuit.

[wolf-man-bear-pig-torque]

Some small business operate in that sense where, each worker pivots to new tasks, projects, skills, etc. The worker is protected, but it's kinda due to out of goodwill and need from the employer, not necessarily out of any legal binding. Again, this is just some small businesses, not everyone.

[stevenwilliams]

Headphone Users: Ear Damage @2:20 ... ouch...

[patricksteele]

The dividing of a1 Co-Op business into coordinating subdivisions is in uses successfully at the Rainbow Grocery Co-Op in San Francisco.

[camerakid]

The problem I see with this is that different divisions are directly responsible for differing amounts of revenue. I.E. The salesman is directly responsible for bringing in more income for the company than the janitor. They’re both important and both needed, but one is more profitable. When you break up shipping from manufacturing and sales and marketing and R&D etc etc etc then each of those coops could have differing thoughts on how they proceed as a whole. If shipping decides they make more money sending other freight than what the whole of the coop is then now it causes a problem for the rest of the operation.
So unless each coop was more of a “franchise” responsible for every aspect autonomously from lets say production to sales, beginning to end, and done on smaller scales then what we now see, then that model could work. But the desire for growth always scales up so....

[daviddreyer]

Automation seems inevitable, but who directs the automation does not have to be top down and who benefits from the mechanization solely one way.

[popasmurf]

They can still form committees and set up ground rules for what this committee can and cannot do.

[Guitarpima]

Even with worker co-ops, the profit motive will always be there. That is, unless we change our mindset about work. We can produce more for less without the need for so many workers. What about public utilities? We always need public utilities but we allow third-parties to own public utilities. Why do we have to pay a third-party for public utilities?

[jacen]

LOL 2:34 "Capitalism is giving way to worker coops"

[scottluthy]

I really think new advancements in technology will wipe out more human labor needed in the economy. Count me in on federal government jobs, in addition we need a universal basic income. Cooperatives are also extremely important. All of the above or combination of these policies must be debated and I hope enacted.

[valereehansen]

Hmmm. Utopia. I see worker-owned-business on some items I purchase. I'm wondering if there is, currently, any entity larger than a small business that operates using the principles of one-worker/one-vote and common decisions. Like a particular type of business interest (hospital/senior care center/school, etc.) or a city or town, or government, or a country. I'm wondering if there is a working example of these principles. Some place where greed has not invaded and corrupted. Just wondering and searching...

[firstsuspect]

I say we change the School system so the curriculum that rules, regulates, and runs this world, country, state, city, town, government, industry and institutions taught k-12 as they're primary and sole mandate. Curriculum that covers all political science understanding, stock market knowledge, mortgages and compounding intrest rates and so forth. Shrink the intellectual divide and create an army of economists and so on boosting the country's domestic and global values. For starters.

[SamuelClemente]

When company get an government contract . Where does that money come from?

[larrystanley]

Who guarantees business loans and credit lines?

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[elliottbronstein]

Do they have to divide? Can't they grow into a single larger coop, and be profitable while still being democratic on the part of their workforce?

[shaunmacdougall]

How would one go about starting a worker co op?