‘In the US they think we’re communists!’ The 70,000 workers showing the world an

[RE]

Not perfect, but definitely an improvement over the standard capitalist model. Too bad it's so rare.  I wonder why it succeeded in Basque Spain and you don't see it in many other places, at least not at this scale?  Possibly due to the relatively small size of the Basque country and the homogeneity of the population.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/24/in-the-us-they-think-were-communists-the-70000-workers-showing-the-world-another-way-to-earn-a-living

'In the US they think we're communists!' The 70,000 workers showing the world another way to earn a living

RE

[K-Dog]

'In the US they think we're communists!' The 70,000 workers showing the world another way to earn a living

So if everyone agrees to one person one vote, and everyone is required to own a chunk of the business they are communist.  Even if the business is essentially a capitalist arrangement but arranged so profit is returned to workers.  Returned to the same people who actually turned their work and activity into surplus value.

The arrangement in America is bizarre.  While posturing itself as free the truth in America is, that the nail that stands up will be pounded down.  It is ou way or the highway and greed is good.

I first found out about Mondragón years ago, and I have not learned much about it since.  Masters of the universe don't want it discussed.  Articles about it have a hard time making it across the editors desk.  Masters of the universe like owning 200 times or more than the average guy.  Who wouldn't.  You have to like it, you have no choice.  You will suppress discussion of alternatives.  It works like this.  I found a biological analogy. 

Lancet liver flukes are a parasite that infect ants.  The parasite makes ants climb tall blades of grass at dawn and dusk but not in the middle of the day.  The ants climb to be eaten so the parasite can find the next host in the lancet liver fluke life cycle.  The odds of grass being grazed is higher at dawn and dusk than at midday.  At midday the suicidal urge is suppressed.

Money works the same way.  Pay people too much and they think being a blue-jeaned aristocrat is not only normal, it is living in the best of all possible worlds.  The world god wanted, the only legitimate one.  The apex of reason.  The divine right and paradise of those with green.

In 2007, Gary Rivlin wrote a New York Times feature profile of highly successful people in Silicon Valley. One of them, Hal Steger, lived with his wife in a million-dollar house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Their net worth was about $3.5 million. Assuming a reasonable return of 5 percent, Steger and his wife were positioned to cash out, invest their capital, and glide through the rest of their lives on a passive income of around $175,000 per year after glorious year. Instead, Rivlin wrote, "Most mornings, [Steger] can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend." Steger, 51 at the time, was aware of the irony (sort of): "I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard," he told Rivlin. "But a few million doesn't go as far as it used to."

<-- wired.com.

The money thought virus climbed up Hal Steger's spine, stepped into his brain and turned him into a dumfuck who can only see getting more money.  Could this be?  Could this be why he perceives any other social arrangement but his personal capitalism as a communist decent into tyranny?

My apologies if Hal Steger is a closet socialist.

And I am not immune.  I live in American and without money I'm not shit.  For me it is not about stuff.  For me it is about security.  Food shelter clothing and medical care.  The culture I live in is selfish and without humanity.  Money is in charge, and nobody in America can help being infected to some degree.  Living in a country where basic needs were provided for, suppresses the money viral infection.  But in American money has learned to resist any move in a social direction with violent fervor.  Human drones respond to any threat on money with vigor, and a variety of behaviors.  Without money people in America are considered homeless pieces of trash.

Everyone always starts with a disclaimer about Mondragón.  Everyone is compelled to say 'it isn't perfect'.  I have seen this statement in every single article I have ever read about Mondragón.  The donning of cultural hip waders must be done or the material can't be published in a mainstream channel.  It is one step up the tall blade of grass money wants you to climb. 

'It isn't perfect' is social code which says, this is interesting but you should forget about it later.  It can not apply to our perfect system. We need perfect if we are going to improve perfect, and anything less is only interesting.  Read and forget.

[RE]

The arrangement in America is bizarre.

It's the same arrangement as in Britain, France, Germany, Japan,Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Phullippines, South Korea, Mexico and most of Spain also.  The arrangement in the Basque region with this company is the anomaly.  It may be bizarre everywhere else, but it's the most common.

Without money people in America are considered homeless pieces of trash.

Not exactly.  They aren't 'considered" pieces of trash, they ARE pieces of trash.  You must work inside the system and pay taxes and have a home to live in.  You're not allowed to be a Nomad who lives outside, it's illegal and considered vagrancy.  You can get away with it to an extent as a Trucker living in your Freightliner if you park at Truckstops and buy meals, gas and showers or are retired living in an RV and pay campsite fees and some Walmarts let you park overnight figuring you buy food there, but by and large in the lower 48 there are few places it's legal to camp for free.  We still have some in AK, and if you're away from the towns in the bush as long as you don't do any hunting you're OK, but otherwise having a fixed domicile is pretty much mandatory.  Obviously, you can't have one if you have no money.  Thus, it is effectively a criminal offense to be poor.

RE