Democracy at work
by Richard D. Wolff · first published 2012
25mentions
8recommended by
13HN commenters
2015–2024first – last mentioned
57% recommend29% neutral14% critical
Why HN recommends it
Argues that worker-run workplaces, where employees govern the business rather than a distant board, are both viable and just. It serves as an introductory primer on cooperative economics.
Common criticism: Critics find it more advocacy than practical how-to, and not very digestible for lay readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Wolff shows why and how to make democratic workplaces real. He speaks to those who realize that capitalism economics and politics as usual have become intolerable and who seek a concrete action program.
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Name the fucking enemy. Starts with a 'C' and ends in 'apitalism'. Read Richard Wolff's Democracy at Work. This is the way.
on “The United States’ Unamendable Constitution” ↗…problems, but I think it's a goal so worth achieving that we ought to work hard to figure that out. [1] For more information on the benefits of a cooperative-business based economy, see the excellent book "Democracy at Work" By Richard Wolff: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13591849-democracy-at-wor...
on “How three-day weekends can help save the world” ↗…be run by a board of directors that is divorced from the day to day management and running of the store. Instead the same people that work there, democratically run the workplace (read Richard Wolff’s Democracy at Work for a good defense of why this system is both viable and just – there are hundreds of successful institutions like this, Wikipedia Mondragon if you’re interested). Democracy prevents monopoly ownership…
on “Yanis Varoufakis: How I became an erratic Marxist (2013)” ↗Thank you for sharing! I want to start my own robotics coop and this looks helpful. Have you read Richard Wolff's book "Democracy at Work", or are you familiar with Richard Wolff? He's a Marxist economist that advocates for transitioning society to a worker directed business model like yours. :)
on “The Loomio Cooperative Handbook: How we run a worker-owned tech startup” ↗Two big reasons. #1 Abundant labor, meaning buyers market, so developers don't have leverage. This has a pretty good primer on the topic: Democracy At Work https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-at-Work-Cure-Capitalism/dp/... #2 I'm as pinko commie liberal socialist as they come, and I can't imagine how even the most well intentioned (least alt-factual neo-reactionary…
on “Ask HN: Why don't developers unionize?” ↗…guys (which is a contradiction, anarchy means lack of a control system or gov't, and capitalism is a power structure) and loved Molyneux. I've always been more of a fan of Richard Wolff and his project, Democracy at Work.[0] But a less serious intellectual than Dr. Wolff (of Yale, Harvard, Stanford), Peter Joseph of the Zeitgeist Project has made Stefan look foolish.[1] And an even less serious intellectual than Peter…
on “YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer for hate speech” ↗…people who had no hand in its creation is a burden they do not share. Microsoft spends $250k/employee/year on dividends and stock buybacks for shareholders. If this idea sounds interesting read the book Democracy at Work.
on “COP26 agrees new global climate deal” ↗…country and other measures." Isn't the elephant in the room extreme capitalism? Tech is just accelerating it. Perhaps the alternative is workers managing their own workplaces: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-at-Work-Cure-Capitalism/dp/...
on “Tech Workers' Values” ↗One of the best books I read over the past few years was Democracy at Work by Wolff. I'm in my 30s now and have some real savings from working during my 20s, enough that I could conceivably have a go at starting a business to solve some problems that I see. Unfortunately I can't…
on “Richard Wolff: Marxism and Communism – Lex Fridman Podcast [video]” ↗…their own boss is what socialism is really about. Getting away from wage labor was always a goal. But if you follow the media, they will tell you it's about big government. I suggest people read about Democracy at Work and Richard Wolf's work.
on “Workers quit jobs in droves to become their own bosses” ↗…with an okay primer on worker self directed enterprises (WSDE). The "more democracy" prescription is the closest I've found to my experiences. But being rhetoric vs a howto, it lacks actionable steps. Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-at-Work-Cure-Capitalism/dp/... http://www.democracyatwork.info
on “Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant” ↗For those who aren't familiar with his work, Richard Wolff is the author of [Democracy at Work][0] and strong proponent of worker owned and governed businesses. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-at-Work-Cure-Capitalism/dp/...
on “'Wallace and Gromit' Producer Aardman Animations Gives Ownership to Employees” ↗Suggested recently by Richard Wolff and many others before him: a possible solution out of this economy is worker coops aka democracy at work. https://youtu.be/ynbgMKclWWc
on “How economics became a religion” ↗…Economics [3] have all toyed with it to varying degrees. But I don't know that I've really seen anyone make a strong case for it (in a way digestible to the layment). Richard Wolff wrote about it in Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism but not in a way that was very digestible for the average reader. Gar Alperovitz has also written about it in What Now Must We Do? and America Beyond Capitalism, but in both cases…
on “Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?” ↗…like how QA obsessives study the Toyota Production System. -- I joined a FOSS project structured as multi-org consortium (Kuali) explicitly to learn how they work. (It didn't.) Richard Wolff's book Democracy at Work advocates WDSE (IIRC, worker directed social enterprises). But, sadly, while Wolff's works are descriptive, he hasn't (yet?) gotten into case studies and prescriptive works. In the USA, the SEIU and…
on “What to do once you admit that decentralization never seems to work (2018)” ↗