Our networked systems allow people with common resources like cars and able bodies to sell their labor through marketplace apps directly to other individuals. Except that there is a predatory rentier in the mix, profiting from the labor of all the users in excess of their labor or
There is a class of app mediated "Gig" employment that leverages the idea of workers owning the means of production to make greater profit with less overhead. They're the media darlings of the mobile web. Uber, Doordash, AirBnB and all of the others where individuals sign up, use their own cares and homes to undercut the prices of taxis and hotels and provide delivery services that the Post Office and UPS can't or won't. These jobs require that the workers provide the labor, cars, insurance etc while the mediating app company takes a cut of every transaction for matching them with customers, building the app, and organizing everything. They also take a cut as profits and maintain ownership of the company. That's the part I would change.
As a co-op, this type of app would only take a cut to cover the costs of running the infrastructure that the workers need. Some might be stored to save for emergencies or long term upgrades or other changes that aren't immediate, but the root organization takes no profit.
Ownership shares would be distributed to the workers by a system of either hours worked, money made, or some other proof of work idea. The workers would use their ownership shares to vote about what the company does, like any shareholders. Over time, the ownership percentage of the core infrastructure developing organization would diminish against the number of workers and their efforts. When a worker leaves the organization, the organization buys back their ownership, keeping control of the company with the workers and the ex-worker gets paid out for their work. Alternately, the organization could be strictly non-profit and each worker gets an equal vote. I dislike this solution as it incentives people to sign up for a minimum time and take the vote over.
None of this solves the root problems of our economy and the issues with being an independent contractor. It doesn't solve the problem of people having to provide their own car, insurance, gas, maintenance and the rest. It would be very hard to get such an organization started as Venture Capital would be antithetical to the idea. It would be hard to be competitive with the existing gig apps as they already have the market share. And I don't know if such a co-op ownership scheme would be legal in the stock trading laws. But it's interesting to take these "disruptive" ideas to their open source, cooperative roots.
Site Navigation