We start and fund a non-profit organization designed to produce basic living essentials and sell it at the cost to manufacture, regardless of market pressures. Then we all collectively buy from this non-profit and have a functional means of production legally owned and controlled by the people.
Set up strict rules to ban anyone who has ever worked in any upper management position in any for-profit basic essentials producing company from ever holding any position of power in the non-profit. No one from the corporate world at all. No one from any position in state or federal government. No lobbyists or consultants or members of their think tanks or any of their goons.
Use open source designs for the factories and everyone in the community works together to automate them as much as is possible.
You need a lot of money to start something like this, money that usually comes from investors who are expecting a return at some point. And if it gets started with too little funding, the big competitors can afford to sell at a loss for a while to force it out of business.
Something like this would have to be organized by a government, and consequently won’t happen under capitalism. Because if a government would be willing to go to that length, they could just as easily punish the companies currently profiting of off people’s misery.
By selling the products like any other manufacturer? The startup costs are the main issue, but people crowd source things all the time, no reason this couldn’t work in theory.
So I propose a solution:
We start and fund a non-profit organization designed to produce basic living essentials and sell it at the cost to manufacture, regardless of market pressures. Then we all collectively buy from this non-profit and have a functional means of production legally owned and controlled by the people.
Set up strict rules to ban anyone who has ever worked in any upper management position in any for-profit basic essentials producing company from ever holding any position of power in the non-profit. No one from the corporate world at all. No one from any position in state or federal government. No lobbyists or consultants or members of their think tanks or any of their goons.
Use open source designs for the factories and everyone in the community works together to automate them as much as is possible.
Sounds an awful lot like communism to me.
I’m in.
I’m surprised no one here has organized something like this yet.
I’m sure the ruling class would get rid of it pretty quickly.
How would they go about it, do you think? Is there a legal way such a thing could be shut down?
You need a lot of money to start something like this, money that usually comes from investors who are expecting a return at some point. And if it gets started with too little funding, the big competitors can afford to sell at a loss for a while to force it out of business.
Something like this would have to be organized by a government, and consequently won’t happen under capitalism. Because if a government would be willing to go to that length, they could just as easily punish the companies currently profiting of off people’s misery.
I don’t really get where the money is coming from.
By selling the products like any other manufacturer? The startup costs are the main issue, but people crowd source things all the time, no reason this couldn’t work in theory.
I’m down