This Sunday, the Guardian reported that Nick Clegg will argue for a 'John Lewis-style' economy in a speech to be given to the City of London Corporation and CentreForum.
It is reported that Clegg will say that this could happen if the government gave workers the right to request shares in the company they work for. The policy is a response to the complaints that boards are rewarding failure by giving bonuses to chief executives despite the share price of their company suffering.
But this isn't a new idea. John Stuart Mill argued that the best type of company is one owned by the people who run it.
No doubt some will agree with this while others will make the case for companies being managed executives and owned by others.
There is another debate to be had. Is it better for government to intervene and encourage such ownership by legislation or is it better for this form of ownership to emerge naturally?
Clegg will also make clear that liberals believe in a free market and capitalism. It is who owners the capital that is the issue.
2 comments:
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It is reported that Clegg will say that this could happen if the government gave workers the right to request shares in the company they work for."
The right to request shares is not the same as an entitlement to shares.
A major difficulty with the current shareholder model is that the shareholders are treated as the only legal stakeholders in a company - whereas in fact the employees might be more likely to have the company's longer term interests at heart than fly by night shareholders with no connection to the company other than owning some shares which they could sell tomorrow
Anonymous
Thank you for your comment. Being a pluralist, I like diversity of ownership and ownership models. For me the challenge is how to encourage models that work without creating unintended consequences.
Simon
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