I have to say that I admire the author's attempt to rethink the employer-employee, capitalist-labor dynamics. As someone who once spent all my time working on a startup I owned (and jealously guarded that ownership stake), I often wondered whether these dynamics are really even just. Are we just perpetuating the issues of class division and privilege?
Sure, company owners typically take bigger risks in a startup than paid employees, but often, it seems to be the case that most people who take the plunge have safety nets, alternatives, and upfront capital that represent significant privilege over the norm. Perhaps, relatively speaking, its just as risky for the employee who takes a paid job that may not exist in matter of months.
In our society, for people in which the startup thing really works out, our system could make you a multibillionaire. You could literally have one thousand times the wealth of someone who is a multimillionaire. Or a million times the wealth of someone whose managed to squirrel away a little bit of cash from the two jobs they work. It takes some serious stones and principles as an owner to deviate from a system that's designed to enrich you if everything goes to plan. I hope it works out.
Sure, company owners typically take bigger risks in a startup than paid employees, but often, it seems to be the case that most people who take the plunge have safety nets, alternatives, and upfront capital that represent significant privilege over the norm. Perhaps, relatively speaking, its just as risky for the employee who takes a paid job that may not exist in matter of months.
In our society, for people in which the startup thing really works out, our system could make you a multibillionaire. You could literally have one thousand times the wealth of someone who is a multimillionaire. Or a million times the wealth of someone whose managed to squirrel away a little bit of cash from the two jobs they work. It takes some serious stones and principles as an owner to deviate from a system that's designed to enrich you if everything goes to plan. I hope it works out.