Economic Innovations (Part II)

Since beginning this semester's journey through Science, Technology, and Society this week's blog post really serves as a sort of mid-term assessment.  We look back at the problems we have encountered all semester, separating the real ones from the ones we've recently been faced with on House Of Cards Season Three, and we apply our newly acquired toolkit of economic innovations to make honest attempts to solve the problems we face in today's society.  Recently President Underwood has suggested throwing entitlements out the window, to provide funding for government subsidized jobs.  Actually, wait that's HoC again.  In reality, we have other equally complex issues.  I will discuss the problem of toxic chemicals such as nPB deteriorating the very workers that use it.  The problem of nPB could be easily solved with the economic innovations we have explored; particularly worker cooperatives.

The worker cooperative is the concept that all employees of a company, no matter how small or low a part they play, should have equal representation in the company's decision making process.  The system works on a one-person-one-vote principle which allows the equal representation of laborers among white collar paper pushers among CEO's.  We've seen this innovation work over multiple periods of time, both old and new.  Although, it's an understatement to say it works, rather we should say that it can be a catalyst for success.  Without the representation awarded under the worker cooperative concept, money takes precedence over health; profits win out over humanity, and dividends eclipse the livelihood of workers and their families.  We see the worker cooperative solve these problems; or rather we see that by nature, the worker cooperative never instigates these issues to begin with.

Cooperation, instead of corporation, can make all the difference for those at the mercy of a capitalist market.  Under capitalism, you pay, or you get nothing; connecting that to corporations, if you're out of a job, you lose everything.  These workers can be so driven to terrible work upon hard times that their safety is placed on the back burner in exchange for a roof over their head.  Roofs, however, cannot do very much for the dead, as we see in the story of nPB.  nPB is a nasty chemical adhesive that drys quickly but emits neurotoxic fumes that ravages the nervous system, transforming it into useless tissue.  The workers, faced with the threat of losing all they have worked so hard to earn, choose to work in terrible conditions forced by the managers and big-wigs of these companies; who take home the dirty money generated by sacrificing the lives of workers.  The worker cooperative concept removes multiple factors causing the bind faced by the workers.  With a worker cooperative, the CEOs aren't allowed to pull in profit while others suffer because workers have just as much of a say in what chemicals are used as the CEO and managers do.  No worker in their right mind would vote to use a chemical that kills them.  Through this internal participatory budgeting, nPB would no longer be used.  The workers could choose to put money into accumulating a stock which would allow use of slower-to-dry water-based chemicals.  They could, as a collective, choose to lose out on one batch-worth of profit for the company to allow for a slower drying period.  Other than this, the company could choose to increase the environmental standards experienced by workers, increasing their quality of life, and surely the quality of their work.  The worker cooperative takes care of all of these issues without the need for government intervention, all while keeping CEO salary roughly below 3 times the worker salary, allowing for a shared wealth and a shared prosperity.

Technology cannot only be found in microcontrollers and printed circuit boards.  We can also find it in political innovation, but political innovation doesn't need to be the limit.  We can further spread technology into economic processes allowing for innovations driving the progression of humanity in a lucrative and fair way.  We see that the worker cooperative never allows the nPB debacle to start in the first place, saving lives and profits alike.  In today's top-down work environment, we give greed the opportunity to oppress humanity, and according to history, greed will win out, given this opportunity.  Through economic innovation, workplaces and many other undesirable technological outcomes could be avoided.  Do not let technology oppress workers when workers can wield technology and take their economic livelihood into their own hands.