How should an economy be structured?

[hobbsyoyo]

How is employee ownership supposed to work?

I only have limited experience with stocks but companies I have worked for offered stock options and awards as part of their compensation plans. However, the shares give absolutely no power to vote on anything whatsoever. Is that because they were privately held? Or did they just write the rules of their stock such that employees have no say in the company.

Would the fix be as simple as mandating the employee held stocks must have voting rights? Or is it a lot more complicated than that?

 

[Silurian]

I have shares from company stock options, here in the UK, and they are just like any shares, you can vote get posted or can see online company reports etc.

 

[Lexicus]

How is employee ownership supposed to work?

This is a trick question because there is not only one way it's supposed to work. One of the ways it frequently is supposed to work is the way you've described in the rest of your post: profit-sharing with no governance rights. IIRC this is by far the most common type of employee ownership in the US. Basically 'How it is supposed to work' is a question answered in the intentions of the people who start a given project, and concretely located in the constitution or charter of the firm in question.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

This is a trick question because there is not only one way it's supposed to work. One of the ways it frequently is supposed to work is the way you've described in the rest of your post: profit-sharing with no governance rights. IIRC this is by far the most common type of employee ownership in the US. Basically 'How it is supposed to work' is a question answered in the intentions of the people who start a given project, and concretely located in the constitution or charter of the firm in question.

I didn't word it very well but the intent of that question is: how do you think it should work? What are the options?

 

[Lexicus]

I didn't word it very well but the intent of that question is: how do you think it should work? What are the options?

I think it should work the way the people on the spot - with skin in the game, s/o to @Mouthwash, I recently saw a long Nassim Taleb Twitter thread about how IQ is bunk where the "skin in the game" concept was adequately explained - want it to. There is no one-size fits all model applicable to any and every situation. My preference is for governance regimes that place actual power in the hands of workers but that really does require a significant investment in teaching workers how to run a firm.

 

[Cutlass]

I didn't word it very well but the intent of that question is: how do you think it should work? What are the options?

In theory, if all the stock is owned by the employees, then the employees choose the management, and vote on major areas of policy. Where this breaks down is that these types of businesses rarely have access to the amount of capital they need to really succeed.