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Comment by bygosh | Hacker News Reader

no offense but it doesn't sound like you understand what worker owned means. you straight up just described capital owned.

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Do the workers at a startup own shares? That means the workers own part of the company. If they chose to raise more capital, that's their decision. Even the most socialist leaning coffee shop will raise capital to pay for capital improvements.

A nice thought. But the early options/shares issued at a startup have been gamed to the point that only the principals can ever get a significant cash payout. THe rest of the employee shares are of a special class that may as well be called 'worthless paper'.

That's really a different point. Most startups fail -- and it doesn't matter whether they're owned by the workers or some distant capitalist. And, yes, sometimes people are ripped off through dilution.

But the reality is that startups workers usually have shares and the shares make them owners. Whether they benefit or not from the ownership isn't the question here.

All you need to do is look at some union-run cooperatives that fail to understand that "worker owned" is not magic.

Non-voting shares? That you can't sell? How is that ownership? The rules for these shares seem to strip all ownership rights from them.

Many ownership agreements come with limits. Some stock funds limit how much people can withdraw each month. Home "owners" associations put plenty of limits on what people can do with their "property."

Do you think that some magical worker-owned cooperative would let people sell? No way. I know folks that worked at a vegan restaurant cooperative. They wanted to get another job-- but the cooperative wouldn't give them anything. Why? If they weren't working each night, they weren't going to get a percentage of the business they built.

There are good reasons for lockups and, of course, you don't need to take the job.

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