Would a True Capitalist Consider a Worker Co-op?
In our latest podcast episode, John Abrams returns to answer Jay Goltz’s questions about co-ops, including just how much democracy Jay would have to stomach.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Lots of people fear AI will take their jobs. Are CEOs among the threatened?
Are Association Health Plans a bad deal for small businesses?
There’s a glut of lumber, and that’s not a good sign for the economy.
The Treasury Secretary says that if the Supreme Court decides Trump’s tariffs have to be refunded, they will be refunded.
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
A few months ago, John Abrams—author of From Founder to Future—joined us to talk about succession strategies and the different ways business owners can share ownership with employees. For his own business, John chose one of the more radical options: he turned his construction firm into a worker cooperative. Perhaps surprisingly, the more he described the co-op model, the more intrigued Jay Goltz became—although, predictably, Jay did retain a degree of skepticism. So we asked John to come back on the podcast to help Jay dig a little deeper: Are co-ops really all about democracy? Does someone on the loading dock get the same vote as the CEO? How do profits get split in the co-op model? How do losses get absorbed? How are loans secured without burdening frontline workers with personal guarantees? And perhaps most important: what can go wrong? In the end, surprising even himself, I suspect, Jay failed to identify any real dealbreakers.
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