Today some 76
Introduction
in the means of production not through a
"vanguard of the proletariat" or some other
million Ameri-
political device, but in his own person,
. . . He does not even reckon labour
cans, representing
through ownership.
as part of his life, it is rather a sacrifice
43 percent of U.S.
In its earliest forms, worker capitalism
of his life. Hence, also, the product of
emphasized profit sharing at one's place of
his activity is not the object of his
households, own
employment and, later, ownership of work-
activity. What he produces for him-
stocks or stock
place stock--practices that continue to
self is not the silk that he weaves, not
flourish in the capitalism of the twentieth
the gold that he draws from the mine,
mutual funds.
century. But the development of history's
not the palace that he builds. What
first mass class of worker capitalists--labor-
he produces for himself is wages, and
ers who derive income or net worth from
silk, gold, palace resolve themselves
both wages and investments--required the
for him into a definite quantity of the
development of more flexible tools that
means of subsistence, perhaps into a
allow ordinary workers to participate not
cotton jacket, some copper coins and
merely in their employer's fortune but in
a lodging in a cellar.
the fortunes of capital markets generally.
--Karl Marx
As a result of those innovations, today
First International
some 76 million Americans, representing
43 percent of U.S. households, own stocks
Stock ownership by employees
or stock mutual funds. This constitutes a
aligns the interests of employees and
126 percent increase in shareholding over
employers. It reduces the "we versus
fifteen years. And the increase has not been
they" perspective and enhances pro-
confined to narrow segments of the popu-
ductivity, stressing long term goals--
lation, but includes many groups that have
savings, security, and wealth for the
historically not participated in these mar-
individual, and workforce commit-
kets. The new shareholders are increasingly
ment, prosperity, and growth for the
involved in the evaluation, purchase, and
company. A symbiotic relationship
management of portfolio assets.
develops with tangible long-term
To the propertyless wage earner as Marx
payoffs for both employer and
envisioned him, work is an involuntary
employee.
detour on the path to consumption.
Who better to own a large piece of
Business activity is therefore an imposition,
Corporate America than the people
an alienation, a theft. The laborer is himself
who can collectively have the greatest
the antithesis not only of the owner but of
impact on the bottom line?
ownership. But to the extent that the work-
--David Wray, Profit
er's wealth seeking combines wage earning
Sharing/401(k) Council of America
with investment, Marx's theory founders in
paradox. The worker capitalist voluntarily
Fifty years before Karl Marx theorized that
defers consumption in order to share prof-
voluntary exchange alienates labor, an
its in someone else's good idea. And his atti-
American statesman, Albert Gallatin, imple-
tude toward ownership becomes, in some
mented the first profit sharing plan at his
degree, participatory. Marx's cotton jacket,
glass works in New Geneva, Pennsylvania.
copper coins, and cellar hovel are consigned
The "democratic principle upon which this
to the trash bin of history.
Nation was founded," he wrote, "should not
The question this study investigates is
be restricted to the political processes, but
whether the growth of worker capitalism has
should be applied to the industrial opera-
altered the relationship between labor and
tion." Advocates of worker capitalism held
capital in any fundamental way. Have increas-
that the laborer must become a stakeholder
2