Part of what you wrote elicited a deep sigh on my behalf. Transferring power from owners to workers is not literally communism, at all. Transfers of power happen all the time when new legislation is passed to create worker protection laws or to weaken them. By your definition, OSHA would be labeled as communism since it transferred a certain amount power within a business to the workers by given them an increased amount of rights while working for an employer. And, to be sure, I've heard management also label OSHA as communist, but it's not.
Look, as you mentioned, there are many different kinds of workplace organizational structures. Corporations with a board are one, employee run companies are another, and cooperatives are yet another. However, the government does have a hand in and does set rules for what structures are allowed. That was part of the contention between VW and the state of Tennessee about the works council. It didn't appear to be allowed under law, so they tried to back walk one through a union, which ultimately failed. In my opinion, that back walking should have never been necessary and the structure should have been allowed.
That's a long way to say that we as a society do have a role in deciding what organizational structures are and are not allowed for businesses. We already do it, but the tone tends to be that a traditional corporate structure is the pinnacle and anything else that transfers power to workers is communist. That, again, is not true and we should be having a more honest and candid conversation about these structures and the kind of society that we want.
Look, as you mentioned, there are many different kinds of workplace organizational structures. Corporations with a board are one, employee run companies are another, and cooperatives are yet another. However, the government does have a hand in and does set rules for what structures are allowed. That was part of the contention between VW and the state of Tennessee about the works council. It didn't appear to be allowed under law, so they tried to back walk one through a union, which ultimately failed. In my opinion, that back walking should have never been necessary and the structure should have been allowed.
That's a long way to say that we as a society do have a role in deciding what organizational structures are and are not allowed for businesses. We already do it, but the tone tends to be that a traditional corporate structure is the pinnacle and anything else that transfers power to workers is communist. That, again, is not true and we should be having a more honest and candid conversation about these structures and the kind of society that we want.