I’m all for higher minimum wages, unions, paid leaves and other forms of worker protection, but it seems like the most forms of worker protection focus on maintaining a division between an employer(s) who owns the business and the employee who makes money for the business but does not own it. IMO, this division is unethical and exploitative because it denies the worker the full value of their work.
Are there any political or social movements that push for policy or legislation that makes all businesses to be worker owned cooperatives?
The closest to that is Anarcho-Syndicalism, or Market Socialism.
It’s also important to recognize that even in Socialism, a Worker is not going to get the full Value they create, as at least some of this Value would go towards common public services and administration, unless it were entirely and perfectly Anarchist.
Common public services that lift everyone up give the Worker their Value in the form of a stable society and economy in which to live.
Roads are a great example. Yes, I use the roads myself, personally, to get where I want to go and back home again. The places I want to go would be fewer and farther between if there weren’t well-maintained roads and traffic controls. Commerce, in both needs and wants, makes its way via roads, not just to me, but to my neighbors near and far.
Those roads contribute to a safe, comfortable, and just society. I reap the benefits of living in a more safe, more comfortable, and more just society because of them - and I would argue that those benefits have far more Value than the dollars that I pay in taxes for them even now.
When we organize together to pool our efforts in ways that benefit everyone, the return on those efforts is exponentially higher.
Tangential to your post, it was bizarre seeing the rabidly anti-“left” politicians of my state (in Brazil) loudly praising the local culture of cooperativism and proudly signing into law the recognition of it being part of the immaterial culture of the state.
