Should the US adopt codetermination?

[Redalgo]

I would like for firms to be collectively owned by the citizens of the country in which they are based, with the employees of each producer cooperative (or sole-proprietorship when only one worker is concerned) granted management privileges over workplace properties associated with the business in question by the state. For co-ops, employees would elect representatives to serve as their managers, administrators, and officers in other capacities depending on what kind of framework for governance they've set up.

A socialist system with some characteristics more often associated by folks with capitalism would be more attractive to me than one that is more decidedly corporatist in character. Nonetheless, I like the concept of co-determination more than what the United States currently has in place. So ya!

[Redalgo]

And that goes to the root, in large part at least, to why it frustrates me when people on the left think of the interests of unions and workers as synonymous. Unions are useful but still need to be treated as the interest groups they are.

[Redalgo]

Well in my opinion, unions are the workers and vice-versa.

In a system of syndicalism that makes sense. Under capitalism, however, my concern is that firms tend to be like authoritarian regimes ruled by coalitions of owners, administrators, etc. with the unions meanwhile being narrowly-interested, disadvantaged opposition parties with little chance of (or will for) clambering up into power. This is often helpful to workers, true, but unions can be corrupt, they can be coercive in their treatment of workers, may at times betray the best interests of workers as workers themselves perceive them, and unions can be intolerant of competition from others even if it would ultimately be good for a lot of employees. I fear that unions do not advance the causes of socialism or cooperativization so much as they offer to imbue the capitalist system with some corporatist qualities.

I value unions - don't get me wrong here - but I do not trust them to speak on the behalf of all workers.

[Redalgo]

Bedstuy, I reckon there may be bit of a tradeoff involved with how democratic and egalitarian a business is on one hand, and on the other how much efficiency and decisiveness it is run. I believe it would be best to let workers either elect representatives to call the shots or to have those representatives decide who to hire on a contractual basis to fill executive roles. This is still not all that great for the overall performance of firms, I think, but in taking this position I am expressing more interest in an economy that is fair and compassionate than one that is better-suited to rally us to cultivate the fruits of efficiency and ambition.

That is to say, there are good reasons for folks to respect and commend capitalism.