[p2p-research] In Defense of Worker Ownership

[Michel Bauwens]

hi patrick, you should look into the challenge post by both distributists
and david ellerman/mike leung's "abolish human rentals", where the very fact
of hiring workers is challenged ...

this is essentially the problem with your approach, workers, who produce the
value, are hired ..

i have nothing against consumers coops as part of a global and pluralistic
system,  (only against your wish to make this a new totalittarian system for
the whole of society), but prefer that both consumers and producers own
their means of production to the maximum extent

I favour worker coops, but with forms of governance that can overcome the
natural selfishness of private cooperators, i.e. by including stakeholder
influence of both consumers and the 'common good'

I have no views on the specific details of this, apart from watching the
emergence and experience of various alternatives in this field,

sorry, right now I have no time to engage in a deep debate with a utopian
system that has in my view zero likelyhood of ever being implemented, a part
from the fact that I remember you had no concrete interest in implementing
it, only to talk and argue about it, and to convince people 'by reason',
that your system is the best ever, but we covered that ground and this
critique before,

the basis of my preference is ethical, I favour the sovereignty of the
creators of value, that's all, it's an a priori preference, and I accept,
but disagree, that other people feel capital, the state, or consumers should
be sovereign,

Michel

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 11:17 PM, Patrick Anderson <agnucius at gmail.com>wrote:

> Michel Bauwens wrote:
> >
> > I'm in favour of governance and ownerhship models that combine
> stakeholders,
>
> I know you (and most everyone else) say the workers will otherwise be
> 'disenfranchised'.
>
> But what is meant by that *specifically*?  What do the workers intend
> to gain as compared to the case where the Means of Production are 100%
> Consumer Owned?
>
> Will they prop-up their wages by disallowing other, non-owning Workers
> from competing?
>
> Is this a form of 'protectionism'?  Does this mean Worker Owned
> enterprises do not qualify as "Free Trade"?  I wonder what Kevin
> Carson would say.
>
> Will they force the Consumers to pay Price above Cost so they can
> collect that Profit as a reward?
>
> If so, then will the Consumers be disallowed from gaining enough
> ownership for themselves to 'escape' that punishment?
>
> What if a Consumer wants to pick his own Olives from his % of the
> co-owned orchard?  Will he be allowed to supply that labor for
> himself?
>
> What if a Consumer discovers a way to automate that picking.  Will he
> be allowed to fully own his portion of the orchard and use automation
> without paying tribute to workers that labor in other parts of the
> orchard?
>
> How will the workers protect themselves from consumers choosing automation?
>
> What is the reasoning behind forcing the consumers to pay the
> worker-owner even when the work is fully automated?
>
>
> > the details matter less than the principle,
>
> We are supposed to accept this idea without any backing of logic?
> That sounds like religion.
>
> Why does this concept have priority over any other?
>
> What is the basis for this unquestionable declaration of truth?
>
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