“If democracy is a genuine foundational social value, it ought to govern the workplace first and foremost” – Richard Wolff

I was recently engaged in an (admittedly obsessive) online debate about the ramifications of certain cities like Seattle raising their minimum wage to $15/hr. I kind of hate to link to it, but an article on Glen Beck’s website sparked the debate on Facebook. The article is absolute trash. Worse, the people commenting on the thread, who apparently don’t think “burger flippers” deserve living wage, are completely oblivious to what’s going on around them.

Early on in the discussion it was pointed out that over the past 30 years or so, although productivity and profits have risen, real wages have remained stagnant. This is basic stuff I thought most people were aware of, but I guess not. On top of that I would think one would have to consider the recent data that came out which talks about how much one needs to be “middle class” in each state these days. And seriously, $15/hr is just BARELY adequate for putting more people in a lower middle class bracket; which, by the way, is what Americans should want since if there is no middle class then there is obviously going to be no one to buy back the junk working poor people will be making.

Although, to me, it’s obvious that raising the minimum wage is just a way of treating a malady which is actually just a symptom of a much larger disease, I do understand concerns from people who own small businesses (like my friend who originally posted the article on Facebook). In an effort to offer a practical solution to my friends dilemma of not being able to pay his employees a livable wage, I brought up the idea of worker self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) as a way of avoiding having to raise his employees wages until his business was in a better financial position. I really didn’t anticipate the amount of vitriol pushback and complete inconsiderate dismissal I would receive for suggesting that businesses be structured in a way other than the traditional top-down, hierarchical, totalitarian way we’re used to. (But I guess I should have known better).

As a way of attempting to contextualize, I offered up the following comment about why I personally like the idea of WSDEs:

I do web and graphic design in a freelance capacity part-time, but technically don’t own my own “business” (I do have really nice business cards though ). If I ever did pursue a larger venture, I would set up my business as a WSDE for a few reasons:

1) I know what it feels like for my essence to be ripped from my existence, and I don’t want others to have to feel that way.

2) As a few others have pointed out on this thread, it takes a lot of commitment, knowledge and motivation to operate an enterprise of any size. The person “at the top” has a lot of responsibility—if something goes wrong they’re to blame; in other words, if the ship goes down everyone (workers and all) go down (except in the case of large corporations where the folks at the top have golden parachutes and large salaries to rely on—but we’re talking about small business here) and the “Captain” steering the ship is primarily to blame. I think it’s a much better strategy to have partners in a business to not only spread responsibility, but to cross-train and teach each other so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing and then if there is success, all succeed. Likewise, if there is failure, everyone fails. I personally like the idea of being able to consult with the people who I work with and collectively being able to decide on how we produce net-revenues and how we would dispose of them. Further, I love the idea of the people who are actually doing the work deciding on what products will be produced with what technology and where.

3) It’s just a common sense observation that we seem to value democracy in every other aspect in our lives but for some reason the workplace is still structured like a totalitarian regime; A small group of people “at the top” making decisions for everyone else. I can’t be the only one that finds this completely weird…

Workers’ Self-Directed Enterprises, Co-ops, collectives, etc… have been around for as long as there have been humans! “From modern mankind’s hunting parties, the origins of work can be traced to its most basic purpose: the enjoyment of the “fruits of one’s labor.” Before work became synonymous with employment, humankind survived in communities through the expenditure of time and energy so that the community could reap what they sowed. No less important than the end product, was the process of work and the psychosocial benefits derived by community members from participation in that process.” (Wolff)

There are many ways WSDEs, co-ops, collectives, etc.., can be structured. Mondrogon Corporation in Spain, for example, encompasses 140 cooperative enterprises within the corporation that includes a total of 256 companies. It employs over 100,000 workers who enjoy exemplary job security.

I think there is one thing that we all on this thread agree on: Like Adam Smith (the hero of free-market capitalism) hinted at, a free-market system based on competition could only work justly if all people owned their own means of production and started at the same place (for some reason people ignore that morality book he wrote…). In other words, we all should be our own business owners.

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Painting above by Pierre Putica

Tags:capitalismcooperativeseconomicsminimum wagemoneyworker self-directed enterprise