Paradoxes of control

Chris Dillow discusses three (3) Paradoxes of control.

Which brings me to a second paradox. Although voters want the government to expand its sphere of control, they don't want to expand their own control. There is pitifully little demand at the political level for greater worker control of firms.

I say this is a paradox because of a simple principle: control should be exercised by those who know the most and who have the most skin in the game. Many workers — those with job-specific human capital — have a lot to lose if their firm is badly managed and have the dispersed fragmentary knowledge to improve management. But the same isn't true for politicians: for example, George Osborne doesn't know better than the market or Low Pay Commission what is the right level for the minimum wage, and it's no great loss to him if he gets it wrong. We'd therefore expect to see more political demand for worker control than state control. But we don't. Which brings me to…

Paradox three. Although there's no political demand for worker control, many people vote for it with their own feet. Since current records began in 1984 the numbers of self-employed have risen by 67.5% to over 4.5m — an increase from 11.1% to 14.5% of all those in work.

Emphasis Mine

Politically, worker control is seen as Communism. And Communism is seen as evil in a Capitalist society. Thus, there is no political impetus.

Economically, worker control is seen as petite bourgeoisie which is acceptable in a Capitalist society. It is something that workers aspire to — being their own boss.

Therefore, we have a conflict between political and economic aspects of worker control. Politically, movement towards worker control is progression towards the removal of the Capitalists. Economically, acceptance of worker control is acceptance of the Capitalist mode of production with the owners merging into the Capitalist class.

Workers need to have a political sense of what is happening in order to preserve their identity as workers, and work towards of society without Capitalists.