Worker-Owners of America, Unite!

Worker-Owners of America, Unite!
By Gar Alperovitz

College Park, Md.

THE Occupy Wall Street protests have come and mostly gone, and whether they continue to have an impact or not, they have brought an astounding fact to the public's attention: a mere 1 percent of Americans own just under half of the country's financial assets and other investments. America, it would seem, is less equitable than ever, thanks to our no-holds-barred capitalist system.

But at another level, something different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.

Read the rest at

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/opinion/worker-owners-of-america-unite.html?_r=1&hp