Summary
I think the reason we are still undecided about the sustainability of the employee-ownership model is simply that there are still significant numbers of business leaders (and, more importantly, business advisors) for whom the idea that allowing employees to earn capital as well as salary and benefits just sounds wrong. They’ll cloak the argument in sound bites like, ’employees are not in a position to take on the risk of ownership.’ Or, ‘people who get something for nothing don’t appreciate it.’ But all of that fails to acknowledge the real reason for objecting to broad employee ownership – that limiting access to risk and capital is just a very convenient way to limit who gets rich.