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

  • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
    4·
    3 days ago

    Vesting periods, increasing stake over time, and conditions that shares are sold back to the company upon exit. You’d need to figure out how the valuation is done.

    Basically turns out into a bonus with deferred payment and a chance for growth of the bonus if they work hard to support company growth.

    • Troy@lemmy.ca
      3·
      3 days ago

      The legal and administrative overhead to do all of that would incur significant additional costs. We shall see.

      • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 days ago

        Originally started typing something to a completely different post. Whoops.

        But yes, that becomes the challenge when deciding to stake employees versus a simple profit share.

        Staking employees gives them longer term incentives, whereas profit sharing will be fundamentally a sales commission.

      • Twista713@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 days ago

        If they don’t already exist, it sounds like a niche need for a third-party company that has some preset templates of different options? Add a lawyer and some legal aid and could be very helpful for the system.