Peter Dorman: The Lesson of Carrier: America Needs a Real Socialist Agenda

Peter Dorman writes that The Lesson of Carrier: America Needs a Real Socialist Agenda.

To put it in a nutshell, the actions of Carrier and the rest of corporate America reflect a system in which investors come first, and the primary goal of business is to maximize profits. We need a system in which investors are just one of many constituencies, and the financial goal is to maximize the probability of remaining profitable over an extended time horizon. Profit has to become a means, not an end.

The socialist agenda, as I understand it, is about the many reforms that move us closer to such a world. It includes worker participation in corporate governance, but also representation of other community interests. It can include measures to broaden ownership, including a role for public and social ownership vehicles along with private ones. Financial reform also has a large contribution to make, especially if it expands the role of public and cooperative banking. Consideration should also be given to measures that would alter the incentives to issue preferred rather than common stock or otherwise attenuate the connection between ownership and control—in other words, perform a Reverse Jensen.

And this is just the beginning: once you start thinking about it, you can see the agenda is enormous, especially because it’s been in mothballs for generations. I wish there were a socialist running for president right now.

Emphasis Mine

Dorman is not yet appreciating the political context (Marxism) in which his observations arise. It is almost like Marxism has faded into the background and yet informs all political and economic commentary. This would be a shock to the Ideological State Appartuses (ISA) who have been actively suppressing Marxism for over 150 years.

Dorman's observations need to extended with a class analysis to explain why these actions make sense to Capitalists, and why the proposed remedies make sense to workers.