When I was assembling my last book (Corporations: A research agenda), I became quite interested in Mondragon in Spain as an alternative way of organising businesses (and featured them in the book).
Somehow I missed this recent profile on the Spanish Cooperative conglomerate. It make for an interesting read when we are told there is no other way of running firms in capitalism.... because clearly there is!
@ChrisMayLA6
I am in favor of worker's coops. However I noted some weeks ago the following about Mondragon:
In order to become an owner-worker, you have to invest in one of the worker coops;
A large portion of the employees are not owner-workers; and
They have a problem having international workers because of their business model.
I think a part of what makes Mondragon successful is that it is a Basque enterprise. I note that, recently, about 10,000 workers split off from Mondragon.
@ChrisMayLA6
I'm not trying to be negative about Mondragon, but I ask, "Why other 'Mondragons' haven't sprung up elsewhere?" But in any event, "hats off" to Mondragon for what they have achieved.
@ChrisMayLA6
I enjoy listening to Dr. Richard Woolf, an American Marxist economist. He is an advocate for worker's cooperatives. However, my impression is that a worker's cooperative would be a default enterprise to Commons Capitalism Entities (CCEs). While worker's coops can employ 10s of thousands of worker-owners, CCEs can employ tens of millions of workers, and they don't have to be owners.
Yes, to some extent that was the Yugoslave experience in 60s/70s.... started off looking quite radical in economic organisational terms, but then stripped back into more 'conservative' practices
@ChrisMayLA6
Commons Capitalism is a much better form of capitalism than traditional capitalism, i.e, corporations or entities directly or indirectly owned by individuals. The net profits are distributed as higher wages and benefits for workers of a Commons Capitalism Entity. No profits go to shareholders.
Commons Capitalism is a concept that complies with all current federal and state laws, can be financed readily with conventional financing, and would out perform traditional capitalism.
This community has been going strong for over 50 years.
Neither is a form of socialism although they accomplish results similar to that of socialism. Further, neither of these economic systems are workers cooperatives.
@Cirdan@ChrisMayLA6
"can be financed with conventional financing": how is that going to work? I can see a bank lending against assets, but you won't get far without equity financing too. How does that work?
Speaking as an individual, I would not want to invest significant money in my employer or have my employer also be a big chunk of my equity: if things go south, I'd be taking a double whammy.
@tokensane@ChrisMayLA6
First, the CCE would target a healthy, asset based company. Upon it's acquisition, NONE of the acquisition costs would be foisted on the target company. It would become a wholly owned subsidiary. The loan for the acquisition would be 100 percent of the assets plus all the stock in the target company.
@tokensane@ChrisMayLA6
Probably from seed money from charitable donors. But once a CCE comes into existence, it needs no other seed money. If Leonard Leo can receive a $1.6B donation (in the form of the Tripp Lite Corporation) for the Federalist Society, don't you think it's possible to get seed money that would change the face of capitalism and employ tens of millions of workers giving them premium pay and Nordic-style benefits and stopping the accumulation of the means of production?
@tokensane@ChrisMayLA6 I'm working on that. Right now I doing a survey of the nonprofit corporation law of all 50 states. Next, I'll be discussing the application of E. Ostrum's laws to the board of directors of the nonprofit corporation. For example, the net profits might need to be paid on the purchase-money loan to the exclusion of the other disparate groups. At other times, in lean years, the profits might be needed solely for payment of benefits.
@tokensane@ChrisMayLA6
Because net profits and cash flow needs can swing widely, no mathematical formula can be derived to distribute profits from year to year. Hence, Ostrom's Governing the Commons makes the most sense.
@tokensane@ChrisMayLA6
One way would be through 100 percent financing with a guarantor. The Commons Capitalism Entity could apply the entire net profit toward the loan until it was paid in full.
@Cirdan@ChrisMayLA6 Banks generally want loans to be backed by an asset they can sell. A limited claim on future profits sounds to them like the worst of both worlds.
Having said that, you might look at Islamic finance for ideas. Simple interest-bearing loans are haram (forbidden), so they have a lot of alternative structures.
@Cirdan@ChrisMayLA6 Yes, but the guarantor is going to need something similar to a bank. I'm getting the feeling that there is a big money-shaped hole in all this.
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