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Edited on Sat Nov-22-08 11:25 AM by Jackpine Radical
If you liked the Wall Street bailout, you're going to love the auto industry giveaway. According to an article in Saturday (Nov.22)'s Latin American Herald Tribune, “General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market.... According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to 'complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.'” What kind of “problems” in the “home market?” Well, there are those pesky unions, and employees who keep demanding a living wage, for example, not to mention those unreasonable U.S. environmental restrictions that that prevent factories from maximizing their profits by poisoning the environment. Here's my proposal for a solution: Let the moribund American car companies go into receivership. Then take the bailout money, loan it to the workers, and let THEM buy the car companies. Let them democratically set up a management system. That way management salaries will be kept in line, the jobs don't go away to Brazil or China, the executive deadwood is cleared away from the top, and the way is opened for a new wave of innovation and competition to prepare us for a post-oil world. The new owners can repay the loans as they start to make profits. Here is a quick sketch of how such a company might be structured: The company would be entirely worker-owned. If you work for that company, you will earn increasing shares in the company as a function of the number of years you are employed in that company. If you leave the company for any reason, you may hold your shares until your death, collecting any dividends that they pay. However, when you die, the company will give your estate a fair cash settlement for your shares and the remaining workers will retain ownership of the company. This is necessary in order to keep ownership from spreading out among people who have no vital interest in the company. Not all workers will have an equal share in the company. For example, if this model were applied to a small-business startup, it would be expected that the entrepreneur who starts the company would retain a larger share of ownership than the other employees. Also, shares in the company may be differentially assigned on the basis of the type of work done. Each worker will receive wages or salary commensurate with their job responsibilities, and in addition each will receive a share of the profits commensurate with the number of shares they hold. Thus every worker will have a stake in making the company more profitable in the long run.
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