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The “reverse centaur” is a natural product of capitalism wanting workers to be as replaceable as possible in order to drive down wages. An ordinary “centaur” is counter to companies’ goals, they don’t want workers empowered.

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As a business owner I assure you I am not overly obsessed with labor costs. I obsess on all costs, and all revenues. VC funded and public companies may or may not take a similarly holistic view.

If that is true, they are incredibly stupid. Empowered workers create better, more effective companies.

But they also create workers that can hop off the ship. If they're on a sinking one, they have no choice but to work hard to get back to shore.

> But they also create workers that can hop off the ship.

Sounds to me like a win for the workers, a win for the employer(in that they get better companies) and a win for society at large.

I don't think CEO class want better, more effective companies. They have nothing to gain by that. They want monopoly situation for themselves, locked customers and helpless dependent employees.

It depends but obviously they want both, both control and value.

Enough control will create value for them anyway, it just might be at the expense of everyone else.

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