The link argues that uber drivers are employees.
The no employee factory as described sounds fine. Ellerman's philosophy doesn't just imply a worker coop mandate. Since natural resources aren't the fruits of anyone's labor and the equal claim to them of future generations, we should apply common ownership arrangements to land and natural resources and artificial monopolies.
Neo-abolition doesn't solve every problem.
Social ownership of capital is orthogonal policy issue
Liberalism refers to both a coherent political philosophy and a historical political tendency. The former liberalism is anti-capitalist. Yes many historical liberals were pro-capitalism, but this position makes their liberalism incoherent.
Private property rests on the principle that workers have an inalienable right to appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. Capitalism violates this norm. Locke was wrong
A market economy of worker coops isn't socialism
At its core, liberalism is fairly anti-capitalist. There are many arguments against capitalism from liberal principles such as the principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match. The workers in the firm are jointly de facto responsible for using up inputs to produce outputs, but receive 0% claim on the positive and negative production while the employer solely appropriates 100% of the positive and negative result of production
It gets even more confusing when you consider anti-capitalist classical liberals
https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Classical-Liberal-JurisprudenceJune2018.pdf
Worker cooperatives don't have to have a flat structure. Smaller cooperatives might use a flat structure, but larger companies will delegate business decisions to management. The main difference is that the board of directors represent the workers instead of outside shareholders making it democratic
There are legal tests to test whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee such as the control test. You shouldn't be able to declare a de facto employee as a de jure independent contractor. The factory with only independent contractors wouldn't be able to exercise the same managerial authority over the workers as if they were employees. If these contractors cooperate directly, they are almost certainly in a de facto worker coop.
https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/UsingESOPsInPlatformCompanies.pdf
This talk focuses on putting forward the argument against the current system. Ellerman describes economic democracy in detail in other work.
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All firms would be mandated to worker coops. All worker would automatically gain voting rights over the firm by working in the firm. All the firm's workers are voting members
The plumber sells the faucet to you as part of the contract they make with you.
Independent contractors are legally and theoretically distinct from employees
If God must be omniscient, God doesn't exist
I hate elasticity of demand
Software companies usually form as worker coops directly rather than using an ESOP mechanim
Here is a list worker coops: https://www.usworker.coop/directory/
There are some software companies in there under technology
Worker coops can delegate decision-making to managers and executives. This can ensure speedy decision-making. Having workers control the firm doesn't mean that every decision must be made by referendum. There can be delegation and more representative democracy
@politicalmemes