-
Employee share ownership I think is very good. It is way more direct in addressing the problem of distribution of wealth of 'business' and reduces the amount of capital that can avoid taxation.
Employee control is good. In the same way Toyota delegated problem solving to the floor, re-investment vs distribution decisions can be made more sensibly rather than the operation of maximising shareholder returns on 1y horizons.
'Business' should be about more than maximal returns for shareholders. Given its expectation for govt support, policy making and its direct and disproportionate impact on society, why should it not have a commitment to more than an elite who control capital?
Perhaps gov't can operate policies to encourage employee ownership in targeted sectors as one part of trying to build a 'mittelstand' type framework and economic rebalancing to regenerate secondary activity in the UK
welpeur-
I think many in business would agree to a large degree with this.
The issue is how labour is trying to address this. Employee ownership for large companies is already encouraged through tax free share purchases. Expand on that rather expropriate and give the equity to a state fund.
Unions in Germany are different to unions in the UK, not as far to the left and they do not see business as the enemy.
ESG is becoming a big topic for business, with room for improvement but I think people already started to move on from quarterly shareholder returns. Guess what, companies with solid ESG are more valuable, so investors likes them.
hesa
It's both equity and control, so it's fairly easy to see how that's a potential risk.
Some risks are worth taking, of course, but this one might have to be implemented alongside capital controls to stop businesses re-headquartering somewhere that they don't have to run it.