The city of Mondragon, Spain
“Modern societies have mostly chosen a capitalist organization of production. In capitalism, private owners establish enterprises and select their directors who decide what, how and where to produce and what to do with the net revenues from selling the output. This small handful of people makes all those economic decisions for the majority of people – who do most of the actual productive work. The majority must accept and live with the results of all the directorial decisions made by the major shareholders and the boards of directors they select. This latter also select their own replacements.
Capitalism thus entails and reproduces a highly undemocratic organization of production inside enterprises. True believers insist that no alternatives to such capitalist organizations of production exist or could work nearly so well, in terms of outputs, efficiency, and labor processes. The falsity of that claim is easily shown. Indeed, I was shown it a few weeks ago and would like to sketch it for you here.
In May 2012, I had occasion to visit the city of Arrasate-Mondragon, in the Basque region of Spain. It is the headquarters of the Mondragon Corporation (MC), a stunningly successful alternative to the capitalist organization of production.
MC is composed of many co-operative enterprises grouped into four areas: industry, finance, retail and knowledge. In each enterprise, the co-op members (averaging 80-85% of all workers per enterprise) collectively own and direct the enterprise. Through an annual general assembly the workers choose and employ a managing director and retain the power to make all the basic decisions of the enterprise (what, how and where to produce and what to do with the profits).”
Read more from The Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/alternative-capitalism-mondragon
Capitalism needs the corrective of Catholic or even humane values to function properly.
While today’s market ideologues celebrate ‘market values’ even Adam Smith feared markets without proper regulations and ethical restraints. But of course, the market ideologues celebrate Smith but don’t actually read him. It’s kind of like right wing/ market Catholics who love and celebrate the the pope and the Church without getting how the Gospel is meant to play out in society: Catholic Social Teaching.
I think there is a healthy balance between regulation, and the free market. Oftentimes excessive regulation can strangle businesses, leaving some with no other option than to close up shop. That extreme would certainly not square well with the gospel. And of course we have the other extreme of under-regulation, leading many to corrupt business practices that can hurt the poor. So in the end, businesses should be allowed to exist within reasonable limits, make a profit, but also employ as many people as is possible. Then everyone is a winner. See Matthew 20:1-14.