this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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Worker coops aren't perfect, but they are more stable and provide better jobs than Capitalist businesses. You're essentially saying you want to live in a dictatorship at work because having a voice is too complicated, and pretend the dictator isn't going to make terrible decisions.
Additionally, you seem to believe you would make less money in a worker co-op, despite the fact that in a Capitalist business, you must give up a larger portion of that which you create to the owner, who holds all the power.
Well, that's what unions and regulations are for. Plus if they piss me off, I can just leave and work somewhere else.
Unions and Regulations are a force against the dictatorial control of Capitalists, but do not make the playing field equal. Capitalists still retain ownership, and thus power.
Leaving one dictator for another dictator willing to employ you is not freedom enough to justify the existence of the dictator.
At the end of the day I'm selling labor and if they're an asshole I'm not selling. They don't control me or my life.
There is an argument for "unskilled" labor, tho. If you don't have enough leverage, to get a good job, making the one you have better with democracy might work. You just also take on more risk by sharing ownership.
You're selling your labor power for less than it is worth, even the nicest Capitalist steals from you and leaves you with no control over at least 40 hours per week.
All labor is labor, skilled labor is just compressed unskilled labor represented by the training required to recreate it expressed over the expected working lifetime of a worker.