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[-] jlou@mastodon.social 3 points 4 days ago

Software companies usually form as worker coops directly rather than using an ESOP mechanim

Here is a list worker coops: https://www.usworker.coop/directory/

There are some software companies in there under technology

Worker coops can delegate decision-making to managers and executives. This can ensure speedy decision-making. Having workers control the firm doesn't mean that every decision must be made by referendum. There can be delegation and more representative democracy

@politicalmemes

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 2 points 5 days ago

The link argues that uber drivers are employees.

The no employee factory as described sounds fine. Ellerman's philosophy doesn't just imply a worker coop mandate. Since natural resources aren't the fruits of anyone's labor and the equal claim to them of future generations, we should apply common ownership arrangements to land and natural resources and artificial monopolies.

Neo-abolition doesn't solve every problem.

Social ownership of capital is orthogonal policy issue

@latestagecapitalism

[-] jlou@mastodon.social -1 points 5 days ago

Liberalism refers to both a coherent political philosophy and a historical political tendency. The former liberalism is anti-capitalist. Yes many historical liberals were pro-capitalism, but this position makes their liberalism incoherent.

Private property rests on the principle that workers have an inalienable right to appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. Capitalism violates this norm. Locke was wrong

A market economy of worker coops isn't socialism

@politicalmemes

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 5 days ago

There are anti-capitalist liberals though

@politicalmemes

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 0 points 5 days ago

At its core, liberalism is fairly anti-capitalist. There are many arguments against capitalism from liberal principles such as the principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match. The workers in the firm are jointly de facto responsible for using up inputs to produce outputs, but receive 0% claim on the positive and negative production while the employer solely appropriates 100% of the positive and negative result of production

@politicalmemes

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 18 points 5 days ago

Worker cooperatives don't have to have a flat structure. Smaller cooperatives might use a flat structure, but larger companies will delegate business decisions to management. The main difference is that the board of directors represent the workers instead of outside shareholders making it democratic

@politicalmemes

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 5 days ago

There are legal tests to test whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee such as the control test. You shouldn't be able to declare a de facto employee as a de jure independent contractor. The factory with only independent contractors wouldn't be able to exercise the same managerial authority over the workers as if they were employees. If these contractors cooperate directly, they are almost certainly in a de facto worker coop.

https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/UsingESOPsInPlatformCompanies.pdf

@latestagecapitalism

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 5 days ago

This talk focuses on putting forward the argument against the current system. Ellerman describes economic democracy in detail in other work.
'
All firms would be mandated to worker coops. All worker would automatically gain voting rights over the firm by working in the firm. All the firm's workers are voting members

The plumber sells the faucet to you as part of the contract they make with you.

Independent contractors are legally and theoretically distinct from employees

@latestagecapitalism

[-] jlou@mastodon.social 203 points 1 week ago

If the Republicans are going to call the Democrats communists and socialist regardless of how moderate a campaign Democrats run, Democrats might as well lean further left on economic policy. Appealing to the right does nothing because the right can appeal to the right better than the center-left can

@leftism

2

How Quadratic Funding Could Finance Your Dreams | Kevin Owocki | TED

https://youtu.be/1GRt0j698T4

Quadratic funding is an economic mechanism that can help solve

  1. Underfunded public goods
    - FOSS
    - News media and journalism
    - Art
  2. Lobbying dominates electoral politics with various concentrations of wealth influencing elections and public policy in their interest
  3. Markets ignore how broad the base of support is for a particular activity leading to inegalitarian results

@neoliberal

60
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by jlou@mastodon.social to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

A simple argument shows that capitalism is theft and workers have an inalienable right to workplace democracy - 35 minute video

"David Ellerman: Neo-Abolitionism: Towards Abolishing the Institution of Renting Persons"

https://youtu.be/c2UCqzH5wAQ

The talk argues that employment contract is invalid due to inalienable rights. Inalienable means can’t be given up even with consent. Workers’ inalienable rights are rooted in their joint de facto responsibility for all production in the firm

@solarpunk

2

What economists don't know - Why industrial policy will disappoint

https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/what-economists-dont-know

@neoliberal

26

TED talk on quadratic funding, a non-market mechanism that a postcapitalist society could use to support a decentralized ecosystem of public goods available to each according to need

"How Quadratic Funding Could Finance Your Dreams | Kevin Owocki | TED"

https://youtu.be/1GRt0j698T4

This mechanism could be used to solve funding issues in public goods such as journalism and FOSS.

Please ignore the reference to crypto. This could be incorporated into today's voting process

@socialism

167

A distraction from the election: The case for employee-owned companies

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-the-case-for-employee-owned-companies

"Ellerman has for years made an argument as startling as it is hard to refute: “the labor theory of property.” It’s that employees should own the firms they work for because of very simple logic: If they’re responsible for the consequences of their actions while on the job — committing a crime, say — how can it be that they’re not responsible for the positive things they do?"

@politics

71

If God must be omniscient, God doesn't exist

@atheistmemes

23
submitted 2 weeks ago by jlou@mastodon.social to c/politics@beehaw.org

James Robinson, Nobel laureate in Economics: ‘You cannot achieve an inclusive economy with an authoritarian regime’

https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2024-10-22/james-robinson-nobel-laureate-in-economics-you-cannot-achieve-an-inclusive-economy-with-an-authoritarian-regime.html

The economist and political scientist from the University of Chicago rejects the idea that repressive power structures will surpass the success of democratic systems, predicting that the Chinese model will eventually have to change

@politics

45
submitted 2 weeks ago by jlou@mastodon.social to c/science@lemmy.world

Math Is Still Catching Up to the Mysterious Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan

https://www.quantamagazine.org/srinivasa-ramanujan-was-a-genius-math-is-still-catching-up-20241021/

Born poor in colonial India and dead at 32, Ramanujan had fantastical, out-of-nowhere visions that continue to shape the field today

@science

27
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by jlou@mastodon.social to c/general@lemmy.world

Can a sentence be both true and false in the same sense? - Dialetheism

It might seem nonsensical until one sees the liar's paradox:

This sentence is false.

Using classical logic, this sentence seems to be both true and false. Due to the explosion rule, that implies every sentence. This is absurd, but philosophers don't agree on what has gone wrong here.

Dialetheism is the solution that accepts that it is both true and false and modifies logic to exclude the principle of explosion

@general

1

Why capitalism is theft even if it is voluntary and consensual, and a case for universal worker democracy

“Neo-Abolitionism: Towards Abolishing the Institution of Renting Persons”

https://youtu.be/c2UCqzH5wAQ

The talk argues that capitalism is invalid on the basis of the theory of inalienable rights. Inalienable means can't be given up or transferred even with consent. Capitalist apologists often appeal to contractual consent to defend the system, so this changes the debate

@latestagecapitalism

2

What do economists know? - When simple solutions are best

https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/what-do-economists-know

@neoliberal

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jlou

joined 1 year ago