Richard D. Wolff

Dear Dr. Wolf:
I like and agree with most of the things you say, and there is no difference in this case. But it is troubling that your solution is so completely wrong. You say the solution to solve the inequality problem is to make income- and wealth-generating activities democratically controlled. To illustrate how obviously unworkable that idea is, let’s imagine that I wanted to start a bicycle shop. Suppose I put in $200,000 to pay for the startup. Now I need employees to fix and sell the bikes, so I hire 4. But the business has to run democratically, so there are 5 votes that determine everything that is done. A year goes by and the worth of the shop has doubled in value. Behind my back my 4 employees get together and agree to vote to sell the shop and split the proceeds 4 ways, excluding me.

Without 1) a means of absolute ownership of property, or 2) a means of compelling those participating in the democracy to acting predominately to benefit the community instead of themselves, democracy will always devolve into just another form of tyranny. Without addressing this fact your comments are true but completely unhelpful.
Sincerely,
Michael