A funny concept developed by artists Kris De Decker and Melle Smets is the human power plant. As the name suggests this is a power plant which converts human labour into electricity. Like many artistic projects, the main purpose of this project is to make people think about our energy consumption. Continue reading Human Power Plants
Category Archives: economics
Bullshit guarantee… (?)
David Graeber, professor in anthropology at the London School of Economics has conceived the concept of bullshit jobs. He defines a bullshit as any job which would not be missed by anyone if those jobs would suddenly disappear. More over he classifies jobs as bullshit ones if the very people who do those jobs consider their work as useless. Continue reading Bullshit guarantee… (?)
On the capital-labour conflict
Australian economist Bill Mitchell is a known critic of basic income guarantee (BIG) programs and a support of a job guarantee (JG) programs. In this post on his blog, Mitchell presents the following argument against BIG: Continue reading On the capital-labour conflict
Robots or sweatshops?
In The Guardian a good opinion piece:
Worry less about robots and more about sweatshops
Not automation per se is a threat to workers, but exploitation of workers is the important issue at stake.
One side note: the author laments the decreased membership of trade unions. However, in the long run only worker cooperatives could end the exploitation of workers. It’s quite pity that those who claim to stand up for worker rights continue to fail to support the cooperative movement.
Non-Tax Revenue
We believe that governments should maximize their revenue from non-tax sources and should reduce their reliance on tax revenue. Here we will give a classification of several types of non-tax revenue. Continue reading Non-Tax Revenue
Why monetary reform?
Traditional economics believes that money is neutral. This means that the choices and preferences people make and have are not affected by the existence of money. According to this view it should not matter whether we use money or engage in barter trade. Continue reading Why monetary reform?
Methods to promote cooperatives
On this site we have proposed several methods which the government could use to stimulate the creation of a cooperative economy.
First of all, the government should give preferential treatment to worker cooperatives when procuring goods and services from the private sector. This will give cooperatives an advantage and hence create an inducement to start a cooperative and to maintain them.
Also the government could set up a finance company which will help people with funding a cooperative through either finance or operating lease. This way the start-up costs and hence risks for new cooperatives will be reduced. By reducing the costs of setting up a cooperative, their formation will become more attractive.
Further the government should create a level playing field between wage labor and self-employment. This requires, for instance, the abolition of minimum wage laws and its replacement with some kind of basic income guarantee. A basic income will reduce the risk people face when they run their own businesses.
Another idea is when people who have lost their job apply for unemployment benefits, to inform them of the possibility to set up a cooperative with other people who lost their jobs. This should be combined with a retraining program, to ensure people will have the necessary skills to operate a worker cooperative.
Where does Money come from
Consumer cooperatives and automation
We endorse the cooperative movement, though we usually discuss worker cooperatives as a mean to achieve self-employment and economic democracy. Consumer cooperatives have received very little attention at this site. Continue reading Consumer cooperatives and automation
Worker cooperative articles
Here some interesting articles on worker cooperatives:
The Case for Worker Cooperatives – by Nancy Folbre, New York Times
Worker Cooperatives: A Bipartisan Solution to America’s Growing Income Inequality – by Benjamin Gillies, Kennedy School Review
10 Lessons from Kenya’s Remarkable Cooperatives – Nathan Schneider, Shareable
Mondragón Cooperative: A Bussiness with a Commitment to a Common Good – by Georgia Kelly and Shaula Massena, Yes! Magazine
