Where will the employees get the money to buy the outstanding stock? Current shareholders have a stake in the companies too.
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It won’t happen.
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This is how the conversion is done. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339416536_Business_Conversion_to_Employee_Ownership_in_the_US_ESOPS_and_Worker_Cooperative_Conversion
Hmm, all from a poster whose avatar is a murderous opressor responsible for over a million dead.
And none of this posting adresses public companies with stock and bond holders needing to agree with the transition and purchase of their shares.
I checked… By far the biggest employee owned company in the US is privately owned Publix Markets. 250K employees. 10 times the next nearest.
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Yeah it’s interesting how we like to romanticize outright tyrants who found it necessary to murder millions to institute their form of government. History is not taught much anymore.
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Regarding high car prices… let’s not forget that the American economy is a market-based one, based on supply and demand to determine pricing.
Most of us on this discussion may not like or approve of the high prices for new cars…but the simple fact is that GM/Ford, etc. are pricing the cars for what people are willing to pay. I sure see a whole lot of brand new pickup trucks driving around my part of the world. Somebody is willing to pay what GM/Ford are charging. And I don’t blame them for pricing at what the market will bear.
My last several cars have been used, for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is lower cost…but I also don’t want the complexity and extra “gadgetry” in newer cars. I also don’t want a car with any kind of internet connection. Just a personal preference.
I’m all for unions and doing what they need to do. But I bet you a 6 pack of beer that upper management at GM/Ford, etc. have already been looking at costs to build new cars in Mexico and/or outside of the USA. The unions better be careful or they’re going to “strike” themselves out of jobs. People may say they want “American” built cars…but people tend to “talk” with their pocketbooks, when it comes down to it.
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As @Mustangman said, your reference paper only deals with privately held companies. In public companies someone has to buy the shares. Outstanding GM shares are worth about $46 billion. Where are the employees going to get that kind of money? Even if they have it in their existing retirement accounts, why would the GM employees invest so heavily in one stock? That is classic risky investing. I’m sure that Ford and Stellantis shares are similarly expensive. And additional complication is getting Stellantis to sell Chrysler to the Chrysler UAW employees since most of Stellantis is in Europe.
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Especially considering Chrysler employees DID own about 55% of the New Chrysler stock as part of the government bailout… and dumped it like week old fish as quickly as they could before Fiat snapped up Chrysler.
Absolutely correct. Can’t say that enough! Many of my co-workers at Delphi had their 401Ks wiped out with the Delphi Bankruptcy. Many that still owned GM stock got a second hit. Too many eggs in one basket.
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The process is basically the same with a public company as with a private company. Instead of buying the company from one owner the employees buy it from all of the shareholders using borrowed money. As the loan gets paid back, the realizable value of the shares increases. ESOP Pros and Cons: Overcoming 9 Common Misconceptions
Just because it hasn’t been done does not mean that it cannot be done. Humans invented GM and can change their invention when the pressure to change becomes sufficient. The era of corporate oppression is ending, and people are reclaiming what they deserve in terms of pay, ownership and benefits. This is what the strikes are really all about.
Uuhhm I did post this…
And I love Publix.
You are free to shed the shackles of corporate oppression any time you wish by creating your own company, paying your employees any way you feel is appropriate. Good luck with that.
No, the strikes are about money, pure and simple.
There are some key words that suggest someone has been reading fairy tales published about 150 years ago and widely discredited by history. I worked a greenhouse, restaurant, a truck factory, hvac plant, and a can plant. The only time I felt oppressed was the greenhouse where I had trouble gettin paid. Otherwise I was delighted to work and collect money for it. After getting out of school and being broke, man was I happy to work those 12 hour shifts with overtime pay. Built my checking account up again and my muscles. The heat was the only thing oppressive. The plant management was anything but oppressive.
Don’t think that it can’t work. I work for a company that does. It’s not impossible. But you have to put aside the corporate greed. And I’ve worked for many other companies that have far better CEO to average worker wage ratio that do just fine.
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I DO think that can work. Wasn’t sarcasm.
If someone doesn’t like the corporate structure at a company, you have the freedom to create your own company vision and structure… Or find one with a structure better suited to your values.
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I just finished reading this story about EV manufacturing costs. It’s a grim assessment for the Detroit 3 with respect to their place in the EV market now and how these new contracts could have a profound effect on their ability to compete in the future, especially with Chinese automakers. Could the author be wrong? Maybe, but I think that the general ideas presented are reasonable.
The world needs an electric “city car” with standard-sized batteries, that are made of a chemistry which can be safely and easily recycled. It does not need large, expensive electric pickups and SUVs with proprietary Li-Ion battery packs, that are too dangerous and difficult to recycle.
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Agreed with this statement.
Too many naysayers are getting hung up on having some kind of EV that can do everything a gas powered one can. Like drive 500 miles pulling a 10,000 pound trailer uphill through the desert, with the A/C on full blast.
Truth is…the vast majority of drivers drive about 40-50 miles per day alone in their vehicles. Which is perfect for EVs.
If people would look around and learn to accept their realities instead of some marketing inspired aspired lives or lifestyles…things could get a lot better really quickly.
Just my opinion.
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Already exists… called Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and they are much cheaper than the full-function EVs. Available from GEM, Renault, Italcar, ZENN and others. Below is a link to one company that makes them.
And buyers avoid them like they have leprosy
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It’s true of any manufacturing here in the US. Labor costs are the primary driving factor to competitiveness on a global scale. The only way to preserve it is to apply tariffs to foreign products to equalize pricing. At some point, it doesn’t make sense any more and you have to move on. It happened with steel production, it happened with small consumer electronics and it will eventually happen with automobiles. Rather than trying to stop time and avoid the progression, we should be training people to do jobs no one else can do. Stay ahead of the curve versus trying to stop time and preserve legacy jobs.
Along with this comes the concern that if we lose the fundamental ability to manufacture such things, it puts us at a significant disadvantage in the event conflicts break out. That is certainly a concern but trying to retain more than a strategic reserve of these capabilities is just going to hold the country back and make us less competitive over the long haul IMHO.
And we need to be more forward thinking about technical advantage. The Chinese recognized the importance of battery technology and securing manufacturing capability early on. Now they have a significant advantage. Hopefully, with domestic ingenuity, we can develop new technology that will eliminate the current disadvantages.
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Hard to believe with that engaging styling touch-
I mean you’re all set to pull up to that next circus engagement
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