From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 31 2002 - 13:48:51 MST
Charlie Stross wrote:
> Lemme give you a brief picture of a socialist enterprise that's active
> just up the road from where I live.
>
> About a hundred people work in this building. It's one branch of a
> large concern with several dozen other branches around the UK. It is,
> in point of fact, a department store -- one of the largest, most
> high-valued chains in the country. The workers there are efficient,
> courteous, and helpful, and the goods are competitively priced -- if
> you can find the same items on sale anywhere else in the city they'll
> match on price, and they provide an extended warranty service on top
> of whatever the manufacturer normally offers.
>
> Did I say "socialist"? Yes: this business, the John Lewis Partnership,
> is jointly owned. All the permanent staff are shareholders. It's a
> worker's co-op. And it's one of the leading retain chains in the UK.
>
> "Worker control of the means of production" means, basically, that
> when the enterprise makes a profit, the workers share in it. Nothing
> more, nothing less. If you worked for a dot com and had stock
> options, you were participating in a socialist scheme.
>
> (With me so far?)
### Yes, of course! Workers' cooperatives where a stake has to be bought are
the perfect example of a functional socialist idea. Interestingly enough,
they are also an example of a viable capitalist entity, since the means of
production are controlled by a free market mechanism, the very essence of
capitalism.
Which brings me to a couple of glib characterizations: Socialism works only
insofar as it overlaps with capitalism. Capitalism is honest mainly where it
intersects with socialism.
Libertarianism is the multidimensional manifold formed by the intersection
of socialism and capitalism. It works, and it is good.
-------
> It's extremely noteworthy that all the failures of socialism have
> involved attempts to impose it from the top down, by government fiat.
> The successes are all bottom up.
>
### So we *are* on the same side after all!
Rafal
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