[p2p-research] Case for economic democracy and against human rentals

Mon Aug 23 20:51:28 CEST 2010

hey mike, all

I wonder if you might be able to make an info-graphic that conveys this ?

maybe compare the concept of inalieable rights that people are familiar with
i.e. negative punitive, contractual in one column with the positive case in
another ? a simple table...

is there a historical photo or image that symbolisises this ? something in
the news that can conceptually provide a bridge ?

anyway... I would find that useful...

cheers

-- 
Nicholas Roberts
US 310 402 3513
http://Permaculture.TV
http://permaculture.coop

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 7:36 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thank you Mike, I'm publishing this on the 27th!
>
>
> Mike Leung:
>
> "Abolish Human Rentals: Inalienable Rights Revived Mike Leung 8/17/10
>
> Inalienable rights are universal non-transferable rights that arise from
> intrinsic human properties and are independent of the laws, beliefs, and
> customs of a society. They invalidate arrangements that seek to violate
> those rights and thereby treat people as less than human. The application of
> inalienable rights arguments transforms the standard discussion of worker
> rights.
>
> For example, when it comes to preventing worker abuse, both workplace
> democracy and worker ownership have been demonstrated to be effective
> solutions. In addition to the obvious benefits of workplace democracy and
> worker ownership, such as better compensation, better working conditions,
> job security, and fostering individual empowerment and growth, they lay the
> foundation to address broader social concerns like economic disparity and
> environmental sustainability. While there is some talk about the barriers
> and policy prescriptions needed to implement workplace democracy and worker
> ownership more widely in practice, what is rarely questioned is whether
> there is anything fundamentally wrong with the employer-employee
> relationship (human rental), the most significant impediment to worker
> ownership and workplace democracy today. Can anything be said about
> workplace democracy and worker ownership in terms of intrinsic workers’
> rights?
>
> Within the standard framework we can only asks which policies are most
> effective, and hope the best solution wins. No choices can be forbidden,
> only disfavored at a certain point in time. This framework must be
> discarded.
>
> The correct question is the validity of the standard employment contract,
> which is a voluntary self rental in exchange for a salary or wage. This is
> by far the most common and pervasive employment arrangement. The underlying
> issue involves inalienable rights, the key anti-slavery argument, which has
> continued application today. It renders the standard dialogue about jobs and
> unemployment merely a diversion.
>
> There is a time to address the effects of various policy decisions, but we
> must first ask whether the economic relationships under consideration are
> consistent with workers being human. A political governance analogy is
> perhaps better understood. Are there some governing arrangements that are
> inconsistent with citizens being people? And should those be banned
> regardless of the efficiency or potential benefits of that system? For
> example, a benevolent dictatorship is now understood to be incompatible with
> personal sovereignty and thus is outlawed as a choice in a political
> democracy. A democracy may be messy and inefficient and even fail at times
> to fulfill its basic governing functions, but few today would use those
> arguments in favor of a dictatorship that might provide tangible benefits
> for the population. Certain choices such as selling (or renting) one’s vote
> are banned because those transactions violate peoples’ inalienable rights.
> Citizens are not allowed to transfer governing authority in a democracy,
> even with consent. Governing authority can only be delegated, a crucial
> distinction.
>
> We now return to the question of workers’ rights. Is there something
> particular about human labor that differentiates it from land, capital, and
> machines? And are there certain economic relationships that are acceptable
> for things but not people?
>
> Slavery is a useful analogy. What is wrong with the ownership of people? Is
> it merely that slavery is coercive and brutal, or is there something
> inherently wrong with slavery such that it should be banned regardless of
> the circumstances, even with a benevolent master? A common anti-slavery
> argument was that the working conditions of slaves were unacceptable. But
> inalienable rights provide a different answer: slavery under any conditions
> was wrong. The framework of the debate was whether people were better off
> owned (as slaves) since they were treated as a valuable investment, or
> rented (employed) where they were overworked, abused, and discarded.
> Inalienable rights arguments destroyed that framework. The voluntary self
> sale into slavery is banned today, despite potentially positive benefits
> such as food, shelter, and safety to the seller. Even in the presence of
> homelessness and starvation, slavery is still prohibited. Inalienable rights
> remove the issue of coercion or consent as the criteria for legitimacy.
>
> The application of inalienable rights arguments equally undermines the
> rental of humans. Today it would be outrageous to consider slavery a form of
> productive employment. Similar views are required for human rentals as well.
> The issue is not one of compensation, collective bargaining rights, or
> working conditions. It applies equally to overly compensated CEOs of large
> corporations as well as mistreated sweatshop laborers. The ideological
> framework in which the rental of humans qualifies as jobs or employment must
> be superseded by a discussion about inalienable rights.
>
> We can easily state the reason for abolishing human rentals: it is
> incompatible with workers being human. Specifically, the rental of humans
> seeks to alienate the responsibility of workers for their actions, by
> transferring financial gains and losses to a different party. And it seeks
> to alienate workers’ decision making power on the job. Workers have
> inalienable rights to both workplace democracy and worker ownership (bearing
> profits or losses). Workers cannot alienate their decision making power on
> the job or resign themselves to being ordered to produce. Governing power
> can only be delegated, never alienated, even at work. Any boss or management
> in a firm must be beholden to the workers’ decision making authority.
> Workers cannot alienate responsibility for their collective actions,
> financial or otherwise. The structure that incorporates workplace democracy
> and worker ownership is the worker cooperative, whose members decide how the
> business is run and own the enterprise. It is the manifestation of being
> jointly self-employed.
>
> The argument is not that slavery or human rentals do not exist in practice.
> The argument is that the human sale or human rental contract fail to negate
> the personhood of the slave or employee. Whatever abuse or treatment they
> suffer, they are still human. People can only agree to cooperate in any
> activity (even under compulsion) since humans cannot vacate responsibility
> for their action. Society and the judicial system may pretend that people’s
> cooperation (productive actions) qualifies as the transfer of their
> responsibility and authority at work, thus fulfilling the human sales/rental
> contract. But contracts which seek to transfer inalienable right can never
> actually be fulfilled since the personhood of humans cannot be turned off as
> required. The actions of production and transfer of money are incorrectly
> taken to show that alienation has occurred to fulfill the contract,
> something which is in fact impossible. The inconsistency is between what is
> actually taking place and the legal and social view of events.
>
> Discussion about the relative productivity of a human renting business
> versus a worker owned, democratically managed business is simply a diversion
> supported by the ideological framework. Inalienable rights arguments are not
> affected by either result, and instead maintain that human rentals are
> always illegitimate. Questioning the readiness of employees for democracy at
> work is merely a tactic for delay. By analogy, some claimed slaves were
> never ready to be freed since they didn’t have the skills to fend for
> themselves. It was better for slaves to be protected by remaining under
> their current status, or so the reasoning went. However, inalienable rights
> arguments supported the immediate abolition of slavery.
>
> The structure of the argument matters. Inalienable rights determine whether
> various contracts and relationships are consistent with being human. The
> standard framework compares various alternatives, whose legitimacy is
> derived entirely from the achievement of some desired result. Since
> different people have different preferences about what is desirable, and
> fluctuating circumstances can change which policies best achieve those
> desires, the standard framework is theoretically devoid of any absolute
> prohibitions.
>
> Stepping outside the doctrinal framework is never an easy task and is
> frequently an uncomfortable and jarring experience. Once this is achieved,
> one is faced with an unpleasant choice. One is either a hypocrite by
> purchasing from and thus supporting human renting businesses, or a pariah
> for living in accordance with one’s views by opposing the rental of humans.
> The practical need for income also adds a level of difficulty for those
> under a self rental contract. There is thus tremendous pressure to reject
> inalienable rights, accept the diversion, or quickly forget certain
> inconvenient facts and ideas. Those are the standard means of escape to
> conformity. Despite the adversity, the inquiry must be encouraged, for these
> are the essential ideas upon which real social progress depends."
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Mike Leung <leungms at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Michel,
>>
>> I have attached an introductory abolish human rentals piece for your
>> blog. Please feel free to format or edit it as you see fit. My
>> apologies for the non open source attachment.
>>
>> I'll work on a Labor Theory of Property piece next.
>>
>> Mike :)
>> _____________________________________________
>> Abolish Human Rentals: Support Worker Cooperatives
>> http://www.abolishhumanrentals.org/
>>
>> Worker Cooperative Credit Union Organizing Group (Unchartered)
>> http://workercoopfcu.org/
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > hi,
>> >
>> > I'll present the credit coop tomorrow already on the blog (done)
>> >
>> > but, I would appreciate a series on human rentals, where the videos can
>> be
>> > embedded as extra's
>> >
>> > and a simpler explanation of the labor theory of property,
>> >
>> > there's no rush, but I would appreciate material between august 20 and
>> 30 in
>> > particular,
>> >
>> >
>> > Michel
>> >
>> > On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Nicholas Roberts
>> > <nicholas at themediasociety.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> hey michel
>> >>
>> >> we've experimented with some video of Mike's Abolish Human
>> Rentals/Worker
>> >> Cooperative Credit Union (intersection)
>> >> http://permaculture.tv/mike-leung-worker-cooperative-credit-union/
>> >> http://vimeo.com/12901862
>> >> http://vimeo.com/12906472
>> >> http://vimeo.com/12909846
>> >>
>> >> guess you and mike could could up a decent post, or perhaps a series
>> >>
>> >> cheers
>> >> -N
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 9:16 PM, Michel Bauwens <
>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> hi mike,
>> >>>
>> >>> I hope you don't mind my cc'ing in the community, so they also know
>> about
>> >>> your projects
>> >>>
>> >>> yes I discovered the human rentals site thanks to nicholas, and then
>> >>> re-discovered ellerman again thanks to him and your work ...
>> >>>
>> >>> would you like to offer some blogpost on human rentals for our blog
>> >>>
>> >>> I would also love a piece on the labor theory of property, but I find
>> >>> david's piece to difficult, so I need something more basic, (I already
>> asked
>> >>> Kevin Carson to look into it as well)
>> >>>
>> >>> Michel
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Mike Leung <leungms at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Michel,
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Nicholas Roberts just tipped me off about your site and the case for
>> >>>> economic democracy post:
>> >>>> http://p2pfoundation.net/Case_for_Economic_Democracy
>> >>>>
>> >>>> You may also be interested in the following website which is
>> >>>> highlighting those arguments.
>> >>>> http://www.abolishhumanrentals.org/
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Mike Leung :)
>> >>>> _____________________________________________
>> >>>> Abolish Human Rentals: Support Worker Cooperatives
>> >>>> http://www.abolishhumanrentals.org/
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Worker Cooperative Credit Union Organizing Group (Unchartered)
>> >>>> http://workercoopfcu.org/
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
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>> >>> Think tank:
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>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
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>> >
>> > Think tank:
>> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> --
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> Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
>
>
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>
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