In Can Consumers Collectively Own ‘Producers’? the argument is made that if consumers could own the means of production for what they consume, they could buy what they need “at cost” and would be much better off for that.

Profit, argues AGNUcius, should be considered an investment on the part of consumers, who would then end up owning the enterprise whose products they consume.

An argument developed over whether consumers would be able to actually run an enterprise. I expressed my doubts and David Braden seemed to concur when saying

The most efficient decision making structure to have evolved to date is the one employed by business corporations. I think we need to design in that same efficiency if we are going to build local organizations with the power to balance global organizations.

he then added

Democracy does not work in a large corporation because most of the shareholders do not spend the time to read the annual report and make an informed decision on who to elect as directors. In a community investment enterprise all of the shareholders would be intimately involved in the day to day operations – and able to make informed decisions about who should be director.

My feelings about a consumer owned enterprise are summed up in one of the comments I made:

The major difficulty I see with consumer owned means of production is the need to run and manage those means. And it is no small feat to run a company. You might think that consumers could do it just by themselves and that might, in an ideal world, be the case. But our world is far from that ideal. Not everyone can take full responsibility for the production of what they intend to consume.

There are risks in running a factory or a farm, there is work involved, at times you need a bright idea and at times you need to think fast to navigate the boulders in the stream ahead. The owner, I would call him/her entrepreneur, has a real function, and I don’t think that a (reasonable) profit is unjustified as payment for the effort it takes to make a company produce and continue to work.

So what is the solution?

Perhaps some arrangement can be found that involves honoring the dedication and skills of an entrepreneur while providing some measure of control to consumers.

Perhaps the entrepreneur, the person who takes the initiative to start a commercial venture, could be seen as an ally of consumers, not the enemy to eliminate.

I was heartened this morning to see an article on a recent survey that found

Entrepreneurs value ‘ideas’ over wealth

The research found the greatest motivator for entrepreneurs is passion about new ideas with 41.4 per cent of those surveyed citing this as their prime motivation for starting a business. 39.7 per cent were primarily driven by ‘wanting to be their own boss’.

Professor Jimmy Hill from the University’s Management School said “We were surprised to see that only a small number of people cited financial gain as their motivation to start a new business.

Linking that article, I said:

I don’t think that profit – although it doesn’t seem to be a strongly motivating factor – is a negative thing. What IS negative, I added, is speculative profit. “Making money” by interest, or by speculative investment, is the cancer of the economy, rather than the fact that someone who starts a business gets to enjoy better economic conditions than the consumers served.