REVIEW: Corey Rosen and John Case — Ownership
“There’s no shortage of diagnoses and prescriptions. Liberals and conservatives argue endlessly about minimum wages, about tax rates and entitlement programs, about business regulations and labor unions,” Corey Rosen and John Case write about what they perceive is ailing the American economy. “But one element has repeatedly and inexplicably been left out of the discussion: who owns the companies that drive our economy. It’s a frustrating omission, because ownership is what gives people a claim on the fruits of free enterprise.
Broaden ownership and you automatically broaden people’s abilities to build wealth and plan for a secure future. So (our) book aims to put ownership squarely on the agendas of the United States and every other country that is struggling with the inequities of free enterprise. It demonstrates the limitations and flaws — indeed, the absurdities — of our current structures of ownership. It describes a powerful alternative, employee ownership, that is already in place, and that has demonstrated its worth in the marketplace.
For reasons…(to) (be) explore(d), employee ownership is not nearly as common as it could be or should be. So we’ll also show how the employee-owned sector can be greatly expanded, thereby extending the benefits of ownership and wealth-building to millions of wage earners.” It’s naturally fitting then that the title of such an articulation on this front has been christened Ownership: Reinventing Companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What. Rosen and Case write in a manner that is straightforward, concise, and feels as emotively true as it is statistically-backed.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Ownership-Reinventing-Companies-Capitalism-Owns/dp/1523000821
“Right now we seem to have pretty much…capitalism for the already rich,” Rosen and Case declare, in aforementioned vein. “…Thousands of…substantial companies are owned by larger corporations or by private equity firms. These businesses can be milked for cash, burdened with debt, merged, or sold off as their owners’ short-term interests dictate. This is not a recipe for an effective economy, let alone for one that people feel is fair. Again, little wonder that so many citizens — wage earners in particular — feel misused, ignored, or shunted aside. So how can we get from where we are now to that kind of capitalism for people, a capitalism with widespread ownership? We need a solution that goes to the root of the problem.
We also need a solution that both sides of the political aisle can agree on so that change can actually happen…This book, in short, will take you on (that) journey. It will show exactly what’s wrong with the way ownership is organized today. It will clear up misconceptions about ownership and describe the elements of a better system. And it will uncover an often overlooked but dynamic part of the economy where everyday people, people who are citizens of Main Street rather than Wall Street, the 99 percent rather than the 1 percent, share in ownership — a system that awaits only the political will to become a model for a new kind of capitalism.”
It’s a welcome relief that Rosen and Case don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, actually offering genuine, well-thought solutions rather than idealistic semantics. It lays a proverbial roadmap from which considerable traction may very well actually be instituted…
Colin Jordan
