Richard Wolff's talk on worker coops

First, a group of people should not be prevented from organizing any enterprise, in any form, and government force should not be used to promote or discourage any voluntary business form. Rebuttals 1) Worker coops are democratic or better stated "none of us are as dumb as all of us" There are a few simply industries that democratic decision making can work, for example, an industry that is a near commodity with continual demand, like plywood. In other industries, especially enterprises based on one person's vision, democratic decision making framework will be an undermining force. Overall, democracy is a terrible method to use for decision making, just look at America's congress. Each one was elected by a democratic process and are far from the best person to represent their districts and states. Groupthink leads to the least imaginative and safest option to be selected. For competitive enterprises this is the road to failure. History has piles of businesses like A&P and Kodak that chose the safest option only to fail. Groupthink dynamics are not a positive when the labor is in control of decision. This is compounded when the labor has only a job at risk, and little to zero personal assets. The underlying motivations are not to maximize future societal benefit, measured by profit. Mon dragon Corporation is a favored cherry-picked company as an exception. I"igo Uc"n. President of Mon dragON"s General Council states "Mon dragON proposes a business model with a difference, based on inter-company co-operation, people playing a leading role and commitment to developing our environment." That is right Mon dragon has a president of a general council, that does not sound like a democratically controlled company. Agency costs, interests of parties, and employee evaluation are all handled by the leadership of a good entrepreneur. Inspiring leadership will always beat a 51% democratic consensus. 2) Worker coops are morally superior to traditional businesses Religion has a long history of supporting many morally inferior concepts. Therefore, not a good source for business ethics. Business only has a few ideas to follow in order to be moral. These principles are don't lie, don't hurt people, don't take their stuff, and follow agreements. Government should not be involved with business if none of those principles are violated. A extremely misguided statement, "Traditional businesses have an unnecessary position which takes money away from people who could be earning it instead. The business owner is an unnecessary position and they take a percentage of the profits based on what the workers do." Entrepreneurs and business owners are extremely important, their accumulated capital is at risk, while labor is compensated for their work as they go. If an enterprise fails, the workers leave having already received past wages, but the business owner's personal assets are in danger. High risks will only be taking with the hope of high reward with the ownership as the group that takes the risks thus receiving the greatest benefit. The labor is compensated through voluntary agreements with very little risk by employees. Some will state that worker mobility is difficult, which I agree with. Government has created conditions that reduce worker's options to change employers. The answer is to reduce government requirements on businesses. A question: Just suppose, that a group of people come together make a plan to be competitive. This plan includes, that the group will work for less than minimum wage, longer than legal hours, and in terrible possible dangerous conditions. Everyone in the group is in agreement and willing to execute under this plan. It has 100% support and is voluntary. Would you support this type of worker co-op? ----------------------------------------- Anarcho-syndicalists appear to not support moving toward anarchy. They support most every form of government including taxation, minimum wage, redistribution, welfare, business regulation, fiat currency, inflation, education, military action, police enforcement of victimless crimes, and many more. For a society to move to anarchy, government must be made smaller. Anarcho-syndicates should partner with anarcho-capitalist to move toward anarchy. Both movements want a leaderless society. Anarcho-syndicalism as well as any other voluntary societies can exist in anarcho-capitalism.