Science & Technology
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Niki Okuk is working to create social and economic justice and worker dignity. Watch her full TED Talk:
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Anna
May 31, 2023 at 12:03 pm
This is an incredibly talented individual!😚
L Wells
May 31, 2023 at 12:04 pm
I want to see this model grow. It’s good for the people and money’s not siphoned into some private equity firm that would cut all that’s good
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:50 pm
This model is unsustainable.
Dr. Shreyash Lal
May 31, 2023 at 5:12 pm
I really hope you experience this model which you think is so great. We followed this model when we gained independence in 1947 & continued it till 1991. In those 44 years, we had the largest population of people below the poverty line in the world. Our country was on the verge of bankruptcy & we only had money left for 3 weeks of oil imports. Our Credit score was so bad that even IMF refused to bail us out. We had to put our golds in foreign banks as security just to get loans. Our government was basically forced to open our economy & let corporate entities in. And you know what happened after that? In 32 years (1991-2023), our economy grew by more than 700%. Our poverty rate went from more than 65% to around 22%. Last year, we overtook UK to become the 5th largest GDP (Nominal) & we’re the 3rd largest GDP (PPP) after US & China. Our life expectancy went from 32 years in 1947 to 69 years. Sometimes, I start laughing when I see people from the west who’re born so privileged & have no idea what it’s like to live under that system think how good that is. And don’t tell me not all are privileged. According to my country’s standards in 1991, even your homeless sleeping on the roads are more privileged than the lower middle class of that time.
Daniel Krcmar
May 31, 2023 at 12:20 pm
If it worked so well it’d have dominated the economic business model.
Krunoslav Stifter
May 31, 2023 at 12:21 pm
Honey, communism has been tried before. Ideology is resilient, but economy was not.
Look Behind You
May 31, 2023 at 12:25 pm
Imagine being smug about calling everything you don’t understand “communism”. You don’t deserve air
MxSpikeSpiegelxM
May 31, 2023 at 12:21 pm
Literally just wants Communism
Dhiraj Bhat
May 31, 2023 at 12:27 pm
So essentially this is socialism without mentioning the word. Funny how America seems to hate that particular word
Daniel McSween
May 31, 2023 at 1:17 pm
Yup, and it’s funny how current model companies are oligarchies and dictatorships, without mentioning the word.
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:47 pm
@Daniel McSween Yea its funny prople with no background in economics or politics always think they know about economics and politics.
Dr. Shreyash Lal
May 31, 2023 at 5:12 pm
@Daniel McSween I really hope you experience this model which you think is so great. We followed this model when we gained independence in 1947 & continued it till 1991. In those 44 years, we had the largest population of people below the poverty line in the world. Our country was on the verge of bankruptcy & we only had money left for 3 weeks of oil imports. Our Credit score was so bad that even IMF refused to bail us out. We had to put our golds in foreign banks as security just to get loans. Our government was basically forced to open our economy & let corporate entities in. And you know what happened after that? In 32 years (1991-2023), our economy grew by more than 700%. Our poverty rate went from more than 65% to around 22%. Last year, we overtook UK to become the 5th largest GDP (Nominal) & we’re the 3rd largest GDP (PPP) after US & China. Our life expectancy went from 32 years in 1947 to 69 years. Sometimes, I start laughing when I see people from the west who’re born so privileged & have no idea what it’s like to live under that system think how good that is. And don’t tell me not all are privileged. According to my country’s standards in 1991, even your homeless sleeping on the roads are more privileged than the lower middle class of that time.
Epicmonk117
June 1, 2023 at 1:40 am
@Dr. Shreyash Lal That’s kinda what happens when you implement a state capitalist regime and pretend it’s socialism
Dr. Shreyash Lal
June 1, 2023 at 1:44 am
@Epicmonk117 State Capitalist regime? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 The world “Socialist” is written in our constitution 😂 We followed textbook socialism.
Epicmonk117
June 1, 2023 at 1:51 am
@Dr. Shreyash Lal I’m serious. Almost every single so-called “socialist” or “communist” nation in history has attempted public ownership of the means of production via the government, completely unaware that that still results in government ownership of the means, which is the dictionary definition of state capitalism.
Dr. Shreyash Lal
June 1, 2023 at 2:03 am
@Epicmonk117 I’m serious too. It wasn’t just public sector companies in that era. There were Union Companies too where there was no involvement of the government. Every single one of them failed except Amul. It is a milk company owned by every single farmer who works there till date. Amul is an exception and not a rule. Moreover, these Union Companies aren’t capital generation machineries. So, even if they’re successful, they don’t push a country’s economy forward like big companies do. People didn’t have money to use the products and services of these Union Companies. The progress we had after we opened our economy & started moving towards capitalism is astonishing and you can see it in one generation. My father not even having footwear & walking bare foot to school & living in a mud house with tattered clothes to now when he can buy whatever he wants & lives in a modern apartment. I really really wish you get to experience this system you feel is so ideal. Most of us who has seen that system laugh at y’all explain how bad capitalism is
Daniel McSween
June 1, 2023 at 9:05 am
@Dr. Shreyash Lal Thank you for the thoughtful response (it’s so bloody rare on social media). I don’t know what I believe in economic system-wise. Having lived under capitalism I see all of it’s flaws, which is disheartening.
Main flaws are companies being too focused on the short term (so for example, media focusing on being polarizing, instead of accuracy), monopolies, and trends of rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. There are lots of others I’ve noticed, like how expensive getting representation in law is.
I want it to be better. Other systems promise that, but as your example shows have problems of there own, which historically have been worse. Could we implement a verison than these examples, sure (cause we have these examples), would it be good enough? idk.
Can we modify out current system to make it better? Kind of, it seems like we are only treating the symptoms as they appear. Which sucks. Is there a better way? I hope so.
working711
May 31, 2023 at 12:34 pm
So what happens to the person that start the company? Do they slowly sell it away as they expand and hire more people?
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:54 pm
The part they dont tell you is its actually a pyramid scheme. The guy at the top just keeps all the money.
The American American
June 1, 2023 at 1:28 pm
Usually these work places are started by a group of people. And also she literally explains that new owners buy in slowly with $1000 payments over time…
working711
June 1, 2023 at 2:05 pm
@The American American I was asking about existing companies
Recks
May 31, 2023 at 12:37 pm
So even if you take on more risk you don’t get paid more? How do you incentivize people to take the higher risk/responsibility jobs if you compensate them like everyone else? What motivation do people have to improve themselves and forward their careers if there are no rewards for their work because their “ownership” is locked in? Sounds broken
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Its just socialism.
enb080
June 1, 2023 at 6:50 am
They do get paid more! Workers in a cooperate have salaries and dividents as two methods of incomes.
It works great in agriculture. In stead of buying shares with cash, farmers buy shares with their land.
ITZ NEPPHEW
June 1, 2023 at 8:25 pm
@enb080 And then they lose their land and their money. 🤣
ITZ NEPPHEW
June 2, 2023 at 12:19 pm
@enb080 You have to determine what your land is worth and then look at the market cap of the company. Then figure out how many shares of the company your land is worth. No company would ever trade land for a large portion of the company. Theyd trade for a rate at about $100 an acre.
enb080
June 2, 2023 at 12:23 pm
@ITZ NEPPHEW dude are you trolling?? You create the company with your fellow villager!! You dont sell into.
ITZ NEPPHEW
June 2, 2023 at 12:26 pm
@enb080 Yea but the vast majority of farmland is already owned by a corporation. There arent many farmers that own their own land. Even then, a bank owns the land.
ITZ NEPPHEW
June 2, 2023 at 12:28 pm
@enb080 What youre talking about is literally people getting together and combining resources to start their own company. The word “co-op” is not needed. Its a company.
ITZ NEPPHEW
June 2, 2023 at 12:37 pm
@enb080 In reality, theres no farmer left in the US who doesnt either own their own company, or is part of a company. There are no farmers left like the ones youre talking about.
Soros W
May 31, 2023 at 12:40 pm
That sounds so interesting
سعاد٩٦٧٧٣٣٣٩٨٩١٧+
May 31, 2023 at 12:43 pm
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى (1) وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا تَجَلَّى (2) وَمَا خَلَقَ الذَّكَرَ وَالأنْثَى (3) إِنَّ سَعْيَكُمْ لَشَتَّى (4) فَأَمَّا مَنْ أَعْطَى وَاتَّقَى (5) وَصَدَّقَ بِالْحُسْنَى (6) فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْيُسْرَى (7) وَأَمَّا مَنْ بَخِلَ وَاسْتَغْنَى (8) وَكَذَّبَ بِالْحُسْنَى (9) فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْعُسْرَى (10) وَمَا يُغْنِي عَنْهُ مَالُهُ إِذَا تَرَدَّى (11) إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا لَلْهُدَى (12) وَإِنَّ لَنَا لِلْآخِرَةَ وَالْأُولَى (13) فَأَنْذَرْتُكُمْ نَارًا تَلَظَّى (14) لَا يَصْلَاهَا إِلَّا الْأَشْقَى (15) الَّذِي كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّى (16) وَسَيْجَنَّبُهَا الْأتْقَى (17) الَّذِي يُؤْتِي مَالَهُ يَتَزَكَّى (18) وَمَا لأحَدٍ عِنْدَهُ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ تُجْزَى (19) إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَى (20) وَلَسَوْفَ يَرْضَى (21) هنيا لمن لديه سحور هنيا لمن لديه فطور ياتي المغرب ونحن ننضر من الذي يعطينا فطور ياتي الفجر ونحن ننتضر من يعطينا لقمة العيش هاذا رقمي لمن اراد ان يساعدنا 00967733398917 نستقبل رمضان بالعبرات والدموع حزناً على والدنا المتوفي عليه رحمة الله وحزناً على حالنا اللذي عايشين وحزناً علا بيوتناالذي تشردنا منها بسبب الحرب يا اخوني ارحمونا حتى بقيمة حبه زبادي انضرو الا حالنا ارحمونا وتعاونو معنا ادخلو الفرحه الا قلوبنا الله يفرحكم بالجنه اعتبرونا مثل اولادكم هل ترضون لاولادكم ان تشوفوهم بهاذا الحال الذي احنا فيه كل وقت وكل يوم وصاحب البيت يدق علينا الباب يشتي الاجار حقه ولا يخرجنا الا الشارع علينا اجار 4 اشهر كل شهر 14 الف الان صارت متخرات علينا 60 الف من این ندفع له الاجار واحنا ليس معنا احد غير الله واهل الخير اليوم الغدا حقنا عند الجيران وغداً من اين لنا ماتت الانسانيه من قلوب البشر اصبحنا لا احد ينظر الينا ويمد لنا يد العون اسالكم بالله تنضرون الا حالنا وتساعدنا اخوني الذي بيساعدنا لوجه الله هاذا رقمي واتساب00967733398917 يراسلني اعطيه الاسم الكامل والعنوان الله يجزيكم خيرالجدااا. .،.،ا’;;;الججزاا،
BadGyrlBren
May 31, 2023 at 12:55 pm
Facts!
Marlene Borun
May 31, 2023 at 1:08 pm
… YES right now to earn a salary most dream of.. you would literally have to be a CEO of a good prospering Company.
Or you could win the Lottery with a lot of luck and then you could make your dreams finally come true and help others succeed in life.
Lucky those people indeed …
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:52 pm
Most people dont dream to be mega-millionaires. They just want a decent house and car and enough to provide for their family. Thats very attainable in America.
Marlene Borun
May 31, 2023 at 3:27 pm
@ITZ NEPPHEW … Well in UK it seems almost impossible for a lot of people …
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 4:31 pm
@Marlene Borun I dont think thats true. I think people live pretty well in the UK for the most part.
Ken Otwell
May 31, 2023 at 1:21 pm
This is great – but Home Care is hardly the type of company that pushes the economy forward and even here the owners had to buy an existing company with monthly payments. If you want to CREATE companies, you need visionaries with access to capital.
Max G
May 31, 2023 at 1:29 pm
Sounds like “super capitalism” for me
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:53 pm
Its socialism
Epicmonk117
June 1, 2023 at 1:42 am
It’s not actually capitalism. It’s something called market socialism.
The American American
June 2, 2023 at 2:30 am
@Epicmonk117nah man, nah. It’s SUPA Capitalism! 😉😉😉
Epicmonk117
May 31, 2023 at 1:50 pm
So… socialism?
Riccardo Giorgi
May 31, 2023 at 6:52 pm
Yes. Socialism…
D.Dahling
June 1, 2023 at 12:39 am
Don’t knock it til you try it! 😂
J/k, but actually, it’s also capitalism. Owning stock in your own company is super common and an excellent incentive to care about the whole company and not just your paycheck.
Мike Gru
June 1, 2023 at 1:32 am
To the person in the comment above, socialism and communism were tried many times. They just don’t work.
Epicmonk117
June 1, 2023 at 1:38 am
@Мike Gru They actually haven’t. Every single “socialist” or “communist” state that has ever existed has been a state capitalist or market capitalist system pretending to be socialist/communist.
Epicmonk117
June 1, 2023 at 1:38 am
@D.Dahling If the company is owned by its employees, thats socialism. If it’s owned by wealthy shareholders, that’s capitalism. Simple as.
Мike Gru
June 1, 2023 at 3:29 am
@Epicmonk117 the thing is that someone will be put in charge sooner or later. Because voting for a decision isn’t efficient and every worker would spend to much time and effort, if he wanted to make the right decision (so they will probably vote without any real knowledge of who or what they are voting for). That is also one of the flaws of democracy. But it isn’t as bad for the countries, because the only purpose for them to exist is to promote the interests of people in it (because citizens pay taxes). With companies, their purpose is to serve the needs of consumers (because they pay). Which means, that the consumers should have a say in what they want. And they do, because of free markets. So, if one company makes a decision based on an average worker’s needs, it might not necessarily mean, that the consumers needs would be met, because a worker won’t put in enough effort to make sure of that. So, now we have to go with the system of CEOs, elected by the workers. It is the same problem, but in a milder form. If a CEO is elected by the workers, he migth be hesitant to fire some of them. He also might be an equivalent to populists in politics. Promise a lot, get in power and either do what is needed (serve the needs of consumers) or try to deliver on every promise you’ve made. You deliver on the promise, company collapses and the workers leave. So modern system, where one man is the head of the company and all the other people are working for him is the only thing that is possible. Also, the workers aren’t stuck at the same job. If they might be valuable to another company, they can go there. It is not like USSR, where you are kept inside by someone pointing a gun at you.
But I agree, that shareholders are problematic. The only thing they want is the stock price to go up. Product can be made worse. Workers can be treated badly. But if the stock goes up and company pays them their dividends, they don’t care. They have also invested their money, so they have real influence. So if there was a way to get rid of these people, it would be great. But everything else in the system is necessary, because it is just the most efficient way to run a company and an economy.
jangoloti
May 31, 2023 at 2:22 pm
I have no problem with this approach. The employees/owners have also to accept the risk of placing their capital where their mouth is. If the company goes well, the have both a job and savings in form of a participation in their company. If it goes under, they loose both.
Let’s see how many employees accept that deal. Ah wait a sec. They wanted to get the company given to them for free?
Michael Runco
May 31, 2023 at 9:25 pm
I find your disingenuous debate strategy both boring and dishonest. Socialism just works better, get over it.
jangoloti
May 31, 2023 at 11:07 pm
@Michael Runco Yeah right, history has proven it so many times…
Peter!
June 2, 2023 at 4:15 am
Well if the company goes bankrupt, the state can just bail them out, no? Isnt that what they do?
ITZ NEPPHEW
May 31, 2023 at 2:49 pm
Capitalism only exploits stupid people. We cant all be rich. We cant all own companies. Those are just the hard facts of life.
And the people who do own companies were workers at one point.
This chick is just a communist.
dudeamongus
May 31, 2023 at 3:24 pm
The world needs to get a grip. You’re not being exploited in the West.
Most people have been lazy, reckless with their decisions and living a life they can’t afford or sustain.
My parents came to the West separately WITH NOTHING and built empires FROM NOTHING.
You know how they did it?
They didn’t expect anything from anyone and they didn’t spend their money on drugs and entertainment. They worked HARD and saved through co-operative economic ownership within the family. When they were all single, the entire family worked TOGETHER to build up family wealth.
Your idea isn’t original. It’s how ALL immigrant, ethnic families came to the West to build a life until people became lazy, self entitled and Westernized.
You are doing a Ted Talk on something that has been going on for ages. Brilliant.😅
Good luck in getting self entitled, lazy, selfish people working.
Alexthesniper19
May 31, 2023 at 3:31 pm
Amen, a great example of this is credit unions
evanislost
May 31, 2023 at 3:54 pm
This will only work for certain kinds of businesses, and even then the business will only survive until a competing business with a traditional capitalistic structure and that is ran by people who are willing to take on the higher risk that results in the business growing and outcompeting the employee-owned and ran business.
Zefram0911
May 31, 2023 at 4:44 pm
how do people with ideas like this get ted talks?
ben low
May 31, 2023 at 5:02 pm
This women is nuts … if it’s worker ownership then that means it’s just a partnership corporation and hence if it goes belly up they get nothing and lose the capital.
D.Dahling
June 1, 2023 at 12:40 am
A huge incentive to do everything to make the company successful, no?
And in the meanwhile they do still get their paychecks, it’s not exclusively profits.
ben low
June 1, 2023 at 1:31 am
@D.Dahling there’s no reason to be impressed, this is already a thing that can be done today. She’s not sprouting anything new. You and 10 of your mates get together to form a company equally and chip in X amount … guess what you’re shareholders to the company and get a percentage of the profits. The problem with this is , if the company doesn’t do well you get no salary and no profits. People work for companies because they want a steady salary as the bigger companies can weather through the bad years. There is literally nothing stopping you from creating a business this way, whether it is successful is another matter. Which would you prefer high risk high reward (ie ownership startup where you put initial money in), or low risk stable reward (ie stable wages). The fact that people are impressed with her shows how little they know about company structures. Google types of businesses and see how her model is different to a company or a partnership.
toca761
May 31, 2023 at 6:00 pm
Hmmmm too good to be true. I prefer conscious capitalism.
Many of the Communist / socialist countries did something like this with farms ect.
” exploits all of us” lol
D.Dahling
June 1, 2023 at 12:44 am
There’s a difference between the government owning everything and the specific company workers owning their own company. Lots of Americans get pay + stock/options (esp. for example in tech). It’s just borrowing the ideas from the CEO incentive structure and using it for everyone in the company.
James Lang
May 31, 2023 at 8:10 pm
Good luck with the localised socialism in the USA
Alioth Spectranet
May 31, 2023 at 10:29 pm
Where can I read more about the companies she’s talking about? Just, her word alone shouldn’t support in our minds that this works
D.Dahling
June 1, 2023 at 12:41 am
Google “ESOP”, employee stock ownership plans are a version of this.
toca761
May 31, 2023 at 10:58 pm
Convert all government jobs into cooperatives!!!!!
qwerty poiuy
June 1, 2023 at 2:25 am
Who is in charge and do they get paid more?
RogerAckroid
June 1, 2023 at 6:00 am
Where are we gonna get the wealth to start the business and grow it by investing?
Someone is going to write a check and then not want it back? The state is going to pay? Well it looks a lot like communism or a presents to a select group of workers.
If you want to create a cooperative with your own money please do it. But i don’t think it’s a smart personal investment.
The American American
June 1, 2023 at 1:24 pm
You have heard of these things called “banks”, right? I heard they give out these things called “business loans” to help entrepreneurs get started.
RogerAckroid
June 1, 2023 at 2:09 pm
@The American AmericanThey give free money? They give money to finance things that are intangible and that they cannot repossess in case of bankruptcy?
The American American
June 2, 2023 at 5:25 am
@RogerAckroid
I just Googled “how many cooperatives are there in the world”
Answer: “There are 3 million cooperatives worldwide; together, they provide employment for 280 million people, equating to 10% of the world’s employed population.”
You are completely and utter wrong.
Cooperatives are a valid and successful part of our economic system. End of story. If you refuse to acknowledge facts, then we’re done here.
RogerAckroid
June 2, 2023 at 5:47 am
@The American American” Together cooperatives employ 12,595,501 persons or roughly 0.2% of the world’s population” is the first figure that I find in Google. It seems more realistic because how many people do you personnal know that work at a cooperative?
I guess the figure you give take into consideration agricultural cooperatives, which is a model that can work because it’s less risky and doesn’t use so much capital (the main capital is the land that the individual farmer owns personnaly, not through the cooperative).
Agricultural cooperatives is not what this short talks about.
And some of the cooperatives that exist in the world are due to state providing the funding, which is more akin to communism as I mention in my first message.
The American American
June 2, 2023 at 6:33 am
@RogerAckroid so farmers are not a part of the global economic system? Sure ok Buddy.
Also, please define communism.
RogerAckroid
June 2, 2023 at 6:59 am
@The American American is this short about creating cooperatives for selling your farm output? Or is it about having cooperatives for industry and service jobs?
Farmers are irrelevant in this discussion.
Communism is when the states owns and finances the means of production. If the state is the one giving the capital to the cooperatives it will in a sense own the means of productions. Also, since no one is personally financially accountable for a failure of the cooperative, responsibility is diluted and it would be difficult to take hard decisions (like layoffs or business model pivot) if the cooperative is in danger.
The American American
June 2, 2023 at 7:53 am
@RogerAckroid
“What exactly is communism?
When it was first used in the mid-19th century, communism referred to an economic and political theory that advocated the elimination of private property and the common sharing of all resources among a group of people; in this use, it was often used interchangeably with the word socialism. Today, the word communism usually refers to the political and economic ideologies originating from Karl Marx’s theory of revolutionary socialism, which advocates a proletariat overthrow of capitalist structures within a society; societal and communal ownership and governance of the means of production; and the eventual establishment of a classless society.”
Directly from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Last I checked, cooperatives are and would continue to operate in the global capitalist system. Best not to throw around terms that you’ve no idea actually mean.
The American American
June 1, 2023 at 1:18 pm
*BASED!!!!* ✊️
UncleSam13
June 2, 2023 at 1:24 am
In my experience the worst companies are worker owned.
Darwin Oldpoter
June 2, 2023 at 9:13 pm
You can always buy a company. The only thing stopping you is lack knowledge.
Micke
June 4, 2023 at 12:56 am
Fall in line comrade!