It simply cannot be right that, right now, because of the crash and the recession, millions of ordinary people are struggling to get by. Yet relatively little has changed for those at the top...
That is a gross imbalance, with wealth and influence hoarded among the few. It’s socially destabilising. Morally, it cannot be justified. And it’s bad for the economy too.
Our problem is what Jesse Norman has called crony capitalism. It’s easy to throw rhetorical rocks at directors, bankers and businesses. But, if we are honest, this is as much a failure of politicians and regulators, the authorities too often cowed by corporate power.
That analysis will likely find considerable sympathy with those here and even in the Occupy movements. The source may however be surprising.
The extract I quoted came from a speech by the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg to a group of businessmen in London yesterday. I should explain that this was an exposition of Liberal Democrat analysis and policy rather than a coalition government statement. It was, however signalling a government initiative that will shortly go out to consultation prior to legislation. Also, it sets out a liberal approach to capitalism that could have a strong appeal in the USA. The transcript is not long and is worth a read through.
The main thrust of Clegg's speech is towards providing a balance between the free market and state control and moving power away from the entrenched self interests. Partly this would involve party finance reform - something that will certainly find resonance in the USA.
The initiative he proposed is to significantly increasing worker ownership of shares in the companies they work for and, incidentally, giving all shareholders more power to reign in the power of their company executives. An example of this in the USA might be News Corp where power to run the company is lodged in the few holders of voting shares at the expense of the ordinary shareholderrs. That of course is how Murdoch is able to run his companies as a private fiefdom despite his minority ownership of them.
Clegg cites the most well known example of employee ownership in the UK, the John Lewis Partnership, in his speech so I should perhaps give an outline. John Spedan Lewis, who owned the chain of shops, bequeathed them to a foundation for the benefit of the workers. Hence the employees are all partners in the company and have the right to elect the board members which includes a number of worker representatives as well as professional executives.
Another differently established example of this extreme end of the spectrum of employee ownership is the Mondragon Co-Operative that started in the Basque country in Spain. It now has subsidiaries in several other countries including two in the USA.
The direct proposal for the UK is to introduce a 'Right to Request' shares for workers - here I am afraid evidence of a watering down of what should be a right to demand by the Conservative elements in the government. While this is very much the other end of the spectrum, it could represent the start of a significant change in the relative power of the 1% vs the 99%.