Economic democracy advocates for power to be taken from the wealthy minority and given to the people. It promotes access to common resources and eliminating artificial scarcity. Approaches vary from forming worker cooperatives to restructuring governments, with the goal of eliminating poverty, hunger, and war.
Economic democracy is a philosophy of socioeconomics. Socioeconomics is the study and exploration of the economy viewed in the context of human values, behaviors, and social interactions. In this context, economic democracy advocates taking power away from the wealthy minority and giving it to the people. In essence, it is a form of economic socialism where workers control production.
Models of economic democracy can take many forms, both in a theoretical framework and when applied to real-world situations. However, all approaches share basic core values. The philosophy is that all people should have access to common resources such as land, water and raw materials. The artificial scarcity manufactured by big business should be eliminated and the purchasing power of consumers should be increased.
The basic economic problem defined by the philosophy of economic democracy is that society as a whole does not earn enough money to buy everything it produces and produces. The reason for this is that a small group of people hold the majority of the wealth. They use that wealth, not for the welfare of their workers, but to make themselves and other shareholders even richer. This inequality, according to the philosophy of economic democracy, leads to poverty, unemployment and hunger.
Approaches on how to solve this problem vary in intensity and scope. Many proponents of the grassroots approach to economic democracy believe they can escape the capitalist model by forming worker cooperatives. A group of people who share similar skills come together to run a business. Each cooperative member will own or rent part of the building, raise funds for public services and advertising, and get an equal share of the profits. Most worker cooperatives today are run by groups of farmers or artists.
A more radical approach to economic democracy involves restructuring local, national or global governments. Instead of just controlling their small cooperative, the workers basically share ownership in each company. The property would not be owned by anyone and therefore could not be bought or sold. It could, however, be rented out. The value of all land would be determined by how it is used.
With this approach, banks will also be socially owned. Every person would be entitled to a share of the profits made by businesses. Everyone works, but instead of getting paid, they get an equal share of the wealth. In this way, proponents argue that poverty, hunger and war will virtually disappear.
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