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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:44 am Post subject: The Solutions Thread |
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High unemployment, stagnant or declining wages, inflation, wars and corruption are problems that the present political-economic order might not be able to repair.
So, The Solutions Thread. What changes can be made?
Try not to be partisan. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:48 am Post subject: |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8329355/Spains-astonishing-co-op-takes-on-the-world.html
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The Mondragon Corporacion is the world�s biggest co-op with 85,000 'worker-owners�, though the Basque group is better known for products such as Orbea bikes that won gold at the Beijing Olympics and sell for up to �11,000, or Fagur fridges, Brandt ovens, Eroski shops, or the coming electric City Car.
Anglo-Saxon elites might find its pay scale unsettling. Top brass in Mondragon�s mountain lair may not earn more than six times the lowliest cleaner. "In reality it is just three times after tax, but we don�t need much money to live here," said an ascetic Josu Ugarte Arregui, the global director.
The differential in big Western companies can be 400 times, and is getting worse. The top pay of FTSE 100 bosses has jumped from 124 times the minimum wage to 202 times over the last decade, according to the Hutton Review of Fair Pay.
Mr Ugarte struggled to explain how the group keeps talent. High flyers seem to stay for reasons of tribal loyalty or the ideals of Catholic social doctrine. To be a Mondragon manager is to accept the vows of priesthood, and indeed the movement was founded by a parish priest, Jose Maria Arizmendiarreta
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The solidarity ethos has its allure given mounting research by the IMF and other bodies that the extreme gap between rich and poor was a key cause of the global asset bubble and financial crisis, as well as being highly corrosive for democracies. The GINI index of income inequality has reached levels not seen since the 1920s across the West.
Mondragon weathered the 2009 slump in machine tools, car components, and its other cyclical niches by putting 20pc of full staff leave for a year at 80pc pay, with names chosen by lottery. Some of its 256 co-ops froze pay, others took a 10pc cut.
The membership rule is that all new workers must put up �13,400 in share capital, which they can borrow from the group�s Caja Laboral, one of the few Spanish savings banks in robust health.
Profits are largely reinvested or sunk into research centres, though a chunk is spent on social projects. Worker dividends are paid into retirement accounts. The whole system is run by an elected Congress, known as "the supreme expression of sovereignty".
Such an egalitarian venture creates all kinds of problems. "We can�t offshore, so we have to keep climbing the technology ladder and improve core engineering here," said Mr Ugarte.
The group is stepping up investment in thermal insulation, and water purification, and grinding machines for the aerospace industry. Its machine tool arm Danobat has bought Newall in Peterborough.
If a co-op keeps losing money, it is given three years to come up a credible plan, but ultimately workers have to be retrained and found other work. Paid-up 'Co-operativitistas' cannot easily be fired. The wider headcount fell by 7,000 during the crisis, but they were outsiders in building.
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America�s United Steelworkers has sought help from Mondragon in creating its co-ops, hoping to emancipate itself from a Wall Street that "hollows out companies by draining their cash and shuttering plants". Yet it is unclear whether the model can easily be exported.
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Yet the movement is still flourishing half a century after critics said it would never survive. It generates 3pc of Spain's industrial output of the Basque region and generates annual sales of �24bn. Almost 60pc of its heavy production is exported. |
The corporation is one of many ways to organize an economic entity. I'm not fond of it. Co-ops? |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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| very interesting idea!! Not sure it can be Americanized! But it is good that it is at least being looked at. In particular I like the idea of linking the bosses wages with the workers. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Free hugs? |
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Space Bar
Joined: 20 Oct 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Make love, not war. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:53 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm pulling for the internet and the spread of information and ideas to empower people so that they refuse to be screwed over and pushed around by greedy sociopaths and megalomaniacs. |
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Space Bar
Joined: 20 Oct 2010
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:29 am Post subject: |
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| ^ I don't know about that. As we type, the Defense Dept. is developing software to allow the creation of ten fake personae (per user) to compose chats, tweets, and other online presences to push the government angle on affairs. If I find a link, I'll post it. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| I'm pulling for the internet and the spread of information and ideas to empower people so that they refuse to be screwed over and pushed around by greedy sociopaths and megalomaniacs. |
I went to Starbucks for my morning coffee today. The place was packed with people furiously working away on their laptops. Every single person (that had a screen I could see) was on Facebook. I think the dream of the internet saving us is, ummm, not gonna happen. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| caniff wrote: |
| I'm pulling for the internet and the spread of information and ideas to empower people so that they refuse to be screwed over and pushed around by greedy sociopaths and megalomaniacs. |
I went to Starbucks for my morning coffee today. The place was packed with people furiously working away on their laptops. Every single person (that had a screen I could see) was on Facebook. I think the dreamyea of the internet saving us is, ummm, not gonna happen. |
I have until know preferred to remain Face-less, but I'm apparently a wierdo.
Jesus, why would you subject yourself to potentially having every last person you ever met (exes, bored attention-seeking acquaintances and misc. riff-raff, etc) being able to electronically demand your attention?
Sounds like it sucks, imo, but then again I'm a knuckle-dragger so I feel more comfortable driving up and leaning on the horn outside someone's crib if I want to talk to them (early Sunday morning = bonus points).
Okay, back on topic (hopefully). Anyone have a better solution?
(I was thinking of a large-scale infrastructure project that would employ thousands/millions? of out-of-work skilled/semi-skilled/ex-ESL teachers - but considering how things have gone lately any success would likely be by accident.
Solution? Space colonization, maybe? Maybe we can stage a BS alien attack to pull humanity together, then harness that tenuous brotherly love to direct the unwitting towards building stuff that would actually be lasting and beneficial.
I just had a wicked hiccup and a tiny bit of puke flew into my mouth. I guess I should take that as a review of my plan. |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:59 am Post subject: Re: The Solutions Thread |
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| mises wrote: |
| High unemployment |
Who cares, other than the unemployed. Lower your standards and take one of the many low skill low pay jobs out there, even if you have to simplify your life. Or invest six months in learning a high demand trade. Or: Don't wait for someone else to hire you and instead make your own job. Start a small biz.
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| stagnant or declining wages |
Simplify your life. There's so much waste and unimportant spending going on that most of us could easily live well on less. Don't give a damn about what society in general is doing.
Buy cheaper substitutes, buy bulk, gut check on value of even being some things, grow some of your own food, even on a balcony.
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| wars and corruption are problems |
Not for me. Publicly protest from time to time, and vote against such things, and don't sweat the rest of it. You have one life to live. Live it.
Leave the economic theory to mises and others who want to play politician. |
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beck's
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:23 am Post subject: |
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Easy. Elect Thomas Sowell as president of the US. Put Ron and Rand in the cabinet. Put Mark Steyn (after he's given US citizenship) in charge of immigration.
Problem solved. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:30 pm Post subject: Re: The Solutions Thread |
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| Louis VI wrote: |
| Lower your standards and take one of the many low skill low pay jobs out there, even if you have to simplify your life. |
This would seem to sum up the message being sent from the D.C. villagers and their handlers. |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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Dude, legalize!
Half kidding. |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:01 am Post subject: |
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| beck's wrote: |
Easy. Elect Thomas Sowell as president of the US. Put Ron and Rand in the cabinet. Put Mark Steyn (after he's given US citizenship) in charge of immigration.
Problem solved. |
A little too statist for my liking |
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Koveras
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:54 am Post subject: |
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The reason the co-op succeeds is, as the article put it, tribal and religious loyalty. |
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