Publisher's Synopsis
The hallmarks of socialism, including cooperative socialism, are the employees controlling the means of production and that control being democratic. Cooperative Socialism provides the answer - not only do workers vote for the means of production, but they vote for the market basket of consumption. Most workers make these choices implicitly by working for money. Cooperative socialism allows another way. Workers would first decide whether they want to collective to provide the good for free, at cost, provide the means for the employee to make the good itself or provide money to let the employee-owners buy the good independently. Let me illustrate. Breakfast and Lunch at older firms can be purchased at the employee cafeteria. Employee-owners could make this free. Either way, the firm can decide whether to grow its own food and process it or buy it on the open market - or from cooperative members. Or it can not provide this service and workers could eat at home, either after growing the food or buying it at a cooperative store or an outside supermarket. Some employees may face this question differently. Younger employees might have a dormitory apartment and cafeteria in the dormitory area, which might even include dinner. Housing could be in dormitory apartments, outside apartments or eventually in single family homes -either purchased through a cooperative credit union (or through an account at work) - and possibly with the cooperative building the homes. Homes could either be standard or food producing. For more on this option, see the essay on Inter-Independent homes in this chapter.Cooperatives can either use public roads or build (with or without neighboring Cooperatives) an electric car/electricity distribution and power generation system. See later on in this chapter for how this will work. There are many ways to get to Cooperative Socialism. One is to convert ESOPs or union-owned firms to a more advanced management structure - part of which is to check out the choices in this essay and exploring whether these would be desired by cooperative members. The way to get most of the economy into Cooperative Socialism is Social Security reform. See the end of this Chapter. If so, governance is important, which is highlighted in the end of Chapter 1. A big reason to go cooperative is to rationalize pay, so workers at age forty won't be fired for two twenty-year-olds. If firms do it right, workers will get more incentive to innovate than they have in the average hierarchical capitalist firm. This discussion starts Chapter 2. A key decision employee-owners make is how to attract and grow new members. I propose getting them after sophomore year in college. See my essay on the cooperative career in Chapter 2. Cooperation is about human dignity for the secular and the religious, for immigrants and for African Americans. Black Lives Matter. See Chapter 3. The status of the District of Columbia has been called finished business of the civil rights movement. Free DC! in Chapter 4.Using overseas labor, a decision some Cooperatives will inherit, is important - especially how to compensate the overseas labor as members in a way to not cost American jobs. See Chapter 5. There are even options for dealing with former communist cooperatives that need to be capitalized, also in Chapter 5, which also addressed American Hegemony and Allied Government.Aerospace firms can shift to Cooperative Socialism or start that way - and such firms should be increased for space exploration and away from munitions. Some of these cooperatives will be in orbit or on Mars, so money is not an option. They can also provide an example of how cooperatives can best be used. Please see Chapter 6.Taken together, these proposals that you can employ can maximize freedom and well-being and minimize government. Who doesn't want that?
