Jacobin Article
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/bernie-wants-you-to-own-more-of-the-means-of-production
This article discusses the Bernie Sanders campaign, and how it is designed to shift power back to the working class. The most radical of his policies, the one this article discusses, is to shift corporate equity to the workers. His policy would be that corporations have to shift two percent of ownership to the workers every year, for ten years (20%). The article states the market value of publically traded funds stands at 35.6 trillion dollars, and twenty percent of that amasses to 7.1 trillion dollars. This money spread across the entire working class, who I will consider to be the entire US population to make the math easier, amounts to 21,700 dollars person. Currently, 86.4% of equity is owned by the top 10% of the population, and the top 1% percent owning 57.5% of it. This leads to power and wealth being condensed in the hand of a few. Those who own the means of production decide what is produced, how it is produced, where it is produced, the wages of those who produce, etc. and ultimately take the surplus-value of production home with them, which the workers do not. We have a small minority that has complete power over those who work and production, the only recourse being regulations and policy, as everyone has equal voting power in the government, unlike work. But, politicians and campaigns seem to be bought by those who own the means of production to further their wealth expansion and power, and run by right-wing think tanks, who are funded by the wealthy as well. In the United States, we have freedom of consumption. One can pick what movies to watch, what snacks to buy, Uber or Lyft, the best washing machine brand, and so on. A big right-wing talking point is that leftists want to take away the precious freedom of consumption, which is our American pride. Leftists want everyone to be under the same comprehensive healthcare plan, taking away the joy of picking health insurance providers, a horrid crime. What isn't talked about much in mainstream discourse, until Sanders, is how radically unfree we are at work. There is freedom with output and no freedom with input. The workplace is totalitarian in nature. It's a rigid top-down hierarchy, and the tzars at the top control everything. If you believe in democracy, then you should believe in democracy in the workplace. There is a mystic around owners, that they deserve to have power because they have massive brains, and that workers will screw everything up because they have tiny brains. This plan will not only help workers in the short-term, but hopefully as well pop the bubble surrounding the necessity of private ownership, fostering a movement for years to come
This article discusses the Bernie Sanders campaign, and how it is designed to shift power back to the working class. The most radical of his policies, the one this article discusses, is to shift corporate equity to the workers. His policy would be that corporations have to shift two percent of ownership to the workers every year, for ten years (20%). The article states the market value of publically traded funds stands at 35.6 trillion dollars, and twenty percent of that amasses to 7.1 trillion dollars. This money spread across the entire working class, who I will consider to be the entire US population to make the math easier, amounts to 21,700 dollars person. Currently, 86.4% of equity is owned by the top 10% of the population, and the top 1% percent owning 57.5% of it. This leads to power and wealth being condensed in the hand of a few. Those who own the means of production decide what is produced, how it is produced, where it is produced, the wages of those who produce, etc. and ultimately take the surplus-value of production home with them, which the workers do not. We have a small minority that has complete power over those who work and production, the only recourse being regulations and policy, as everyone has equal voting power in the government, unlike work. But, politicians and campaigns seem to be bought by those who own the means of production to further their wealth expansion and power, and run by right-wing think tanks, who are funded by the wealthy as well. In the United States, we have freedom of consumption. One can pick what movies to watch, what snacks to buy, Uber or Lyft, the best washing machine brand, and so on. A big right-wing talking point is that leftists want to take away the precious freedom of consumption, which is our American pride. Leftists want everyone to be under the same comprehensive healthcare plan, taking away the joy of picking health insurance providers, a horrid crime. What isn't talked about much in mainstream discourse, until Sanders, is how radically unfree we are at work. There is freedom with output and no freedom with input. The workplace is totalitarian in nature. It's a rigid top-down hierarchy, and the tzars at the top control everything. If you believe in democracy, then you should believe in democracy in the workplace. There is a mystic around owners, that they deserve to have power because they have massive brains, and that workers will screw everything up because they have tiny brains. This plan will not only help workers in the short-term, but hopefully as well pop the bubble surrounding the necessity of private ownership, fostering a movement for years to come
Comments
Post a Comment