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I've heard several prominent thinkers argue for this solution to our current system. The person quoted in my signature, John Rawls who is widely considered the most influential political philosopher of the 20th century, argued that a "property owning democracy" his term for a system where all industry is owned by the people working it is one of the only two economic models that can create a just society. The other was Democratic Socialism. Both forms of capitalism, libertarianism and a well-fare state, he said were unjust.

I'll put it on my list of stuff to learn about.

I've been reading/listening to a lot of Rick Wolff lately. He's got a weekly radio show/podcast. The "workers self directed enterprise" as he presents it is an important strategy for building toward socialism. A little deeper in he also talks about the role of the government to help centrally plan and coordinate the activities of the WSDE's. It's just one strategy. Kind of like Mondragon or whatever. Like people have talked about before, if you plop worker-run co-ops in the middle of a capitalist economy, they may still be forced to operate according to capitalist principals. And sometimes they get bought out by for-profit companies. Even at their most successful they have limited effectiveness because their influence is limited. So I tend to agree with Rick Wolff that this kind of activity is a necessary but not sufficient step for ending capitalism.

"A Theory of Justice" is his original work on the topic and he goes into more depth than in a "Restatement", but it can be very hard to get through and I find "Restatement" to be easier to read through and grasp the basic concepts. I'm considering posting a few article on Rawl's ideas in this group for discussion, but I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested.

... wrote abou it in 1848 in "What is Property?"

He was, by no means, the first to develop the idea.

Libertarian Socialism, look it up. It will open your eyes. The concept is as old as humanity. Even Marx's concept of socialism is derived from this.

On my part or yours. I never meant to imply that Rawls was the first to come up with this concept, I was just pointing out that Wollff isn't alone. I know a bit about Proudhon, but only through second hand sources. I do need to read some of his works. Would you suggest "What is Property" as a good starting point?

For the primer: Anarchism: From Theory to. Practice.

Then: What is Property?

Transformatiomal.

All socialists should read it.