I think capitalism would have been a success if employees would have
invested in their workplace. This also requires equal rights with equal
access the books for example. It would require a little more trust
between employees and employers.
The faster a company turns over inventory the greater their profits,
potentially. Obviously they're not going to make money if it costs them
more to sell something than what they paid for it, but imagine if you
will, an inventory. Let's say a gas station has an account for buying gas
to sell to the public. They buy the gas wholesale, mark it up, and sell
it for a profit after rent, utilities and supplies have been paid for.
Suppose the account consisted of a fund where employees could contribute
and at the end of the month, the profit, if they made one, from income
minus expenses is put back into the fund, and distributed to the
individual investors in the fund. The best people to own this fund are
the employees.
If, for example, the gas station looses money, employees with a vested
interest, in the fund, would watch their account balance go down and would
work harder to see it go up again. They'll do whatever they can to turn
inventory over faster, profitably and make customers happy.
Unfortunately today's business model leaves employees without an
invested interest in their workplace. It's to the employees best interest
if the customer goes away, buys less inventory, and the employee will have
less work to do, and believe you me, a lot of employees know this.
The equation is a lot more complicated, of course, but it is doable.
The business owners have to figure out a formula for disbursement of funds
to the accounts employees invested in. Also, gas stations, most owners
will say don't make profit on selling gas, but rather the services they
offer, so the calculations will have to include the whole business, most
likely. The rewards however, for company growth, will exceed the
wildest imaginations of business owners who could implement such a plan.
