…okay? that wasn’t the question being asked. did you get confused at some point?
like, i agree with what you said, just…what does it have to do with the current state of affairs?
the entire comment chain talks about the past and how capitalism has (supposedly) improved conditions. (since that “improvement” is implied to have already happened by the past tense, we’re talking about the current system. without specifying anything about exactly “who” those conditions have improved for…conveniently)
so i fail to see the connection to (largely) theoretical improvements to capitalism…
We actually used to have some form of stakeholder capitalism, at least practiced at a large number of companies. This is before the greedy corporate raiders ruined it, where they made investors the priority. It only existed for a short period, between the abuses of the past, and the abuses of now. But it was long enough where some people enjoyed an entire career.
At these companies, employees used to have jobs for life, pensions, and generous benefits. But then the corporate raiders took that all away. That is also about the time that employee’s wages stopped growing and started to stagnate or worse.
Was it perfect? No. But it was better than communism, and better than laissez-faire capitalism, and better than crony capitalism, which we have now.
The good news is that some people are trying to bring stakeholder capitalism back. Many states now have something called a “public benefit corporation” which is legally required to consider all of the stakeholders, not just the investors. These laws would prevent corporate raiders and investors from gutting these companies at the expense of the workers and consumers.
Plus, cooperatives and employee-owned companies have been around for a long time. Both employees and consumers are treated much better at these enterprises than they are at their investor-owned counterparts.
…okay? that wasn’t the question being asked. did you get confused at some point?
like, i agree with what you said, just…what does it have to do with the current state of affairs?
the entire comment chain talks about the past and how capitalism has (supposedly) improved conditions. (since that “improvement” is implied to have already happened by the past tense, we’re talking about the current system. without specifying anything about exactly “who” those conditions have improved for…conveniently)
so i fail to see the connection to (largely) theoretical improvements to capitalism…
We actually used to have some form of stakeholder capitalism, at least practiced at a large number of companies. This is before the greedy corporate raiders ruined it, where they made investors the priority. It only existed for a short period, between the abuses of the past, and the abuses of now. But it was long enough where some people enjoyed an entire career.
At these companies, employees used to have jobs for life, pensions, and generous benefits. But then the corporate raiders took that all away. That is also about the time that employee’s wages stopped growing and started to stagnate or worse.
Was it perfect? No. But it was better than communism, and better than laissez-faire capitalism, and better than crony capitalism, which we have now.
The good news is that some people are trying to bring stakeholder capitalism back. Many states now have something called a “public benefit corporation” which is legally required to consider all of the stakeholders, not just the investors. These laws would prevent corporate raiders and investors from gutting these companies at the expense of the workers and consumers.
Plus, cooperatives and employee-owned companies have been around for a long time. Both employees and consumers are treated much better at these enterprises than they are at their investor-owned counterparts.
It is a model that works, and must be protected.