— from Learner Limbach —
Yesterday I traveled by bus from Bilbao to Mondragon, which ended up taking most of a day because it was Sunday and buses were running less frequently. Oh and I got a little bit lost, at one point… But I made it!
Today was Day 1 of a two-day tour I am participating in here. I’m learning a lot and taking lots of notes, plus they are going to send me all the slides from presentations later and I’m audio-recording. So I’m leaving no stone unturned while I’m here!
Here are a few fun facts:
Number of Co-ops: 98
Number of employee owners: 80,800
Ratio of highest paid to lowest paid workers
Mondragon: 6 to 1
Comparable companies: 100 to 1
Workers are also owners and have an equal vote and equity stake with everyone else. The towns where Mondragon co-ops are located have the lowest unemployment and least inequality in the entire Basque region. So it’s not just the people who work at Mondragon who benefit, but everyone in the communities where the co-ops are located.
There is so much to share that will have to come in a later update because I have to get some sleep now.
More updates on my facebook profile
Some conflation is accurate (and needed)!
Apart from not being artificial but being instead a natural constituent of reality, the “individual” (and a society that strengthens its capacity for individual expression) leads to a society that opts for the lesser evil. Mind you, nothing can be perfect per our own subjective attempts at defining same, which is oxymoronic..
State monolithic power, Socialism’s endgame, is far less relatively perfect than that found in societies emphasizing the individual. It’s been demonstrated.
Mostly, its due to reality (the Individual is real,
the Social is a concept); but also to the dangers of group-think which naturally form oligarchies who begin to know best for everyone, eliminating choice and eventually all but the smallest modicums of free expression. The consequences to greater society in progress and innovation are Orwellian.
Therefore, some say better that the consequences of excess caused by an oversized footprint be found in and left to natural selection rather than we become a sterile, police state—Socialism’s endgame. Realize this—Socialism has always been disrupted due to the USA’s oversized influence, which has always hid its truer, scarier face.
Reviewing Socialism’s “future” without accounting for the USA’s “past” impact on its potential (for nightmare), is a review not exposed to the light of day & represents society’s growing absence of deep thinkers.
China’s path is Socialism’s future!