ESOPs and Unions

Jesse Walker | June 21, 2006

Interesting comparison:

"Worker ownership of the means of production" used to be a hoary radical demand; today it is increasingly an accepted reality. Few realize that roughly 11,500 U.S. businesses are now wholly or substantially owned by their employees -- up from fewer than 300 a generation ago. The 10 million individuals involved in employee-owned firms include more people than the entire membership of private-sector labor unions.

That comes from Gar Alperovitz's contribution to the new journal Democracy, in which he sets out to sketch a leftist version of the "Ownership Society." His proposals are a mixed bag, to say the least, but they're also the sort of creative thinking the leading Dems seem incapable of even attempting these days.