As nations move toward democracy and a free market they find themselves in possession of state-controlled industries that are better run as private sector enterprises. This is easier said than done. In the former Soviet Union, shares were distributed to employees while the currency was collapsing. The Russian workers did not know that the stock price was not as important as the maintenance of control, so they sold their seemingly worthless shares to the agents of what are now the Oligarchs. It will now take decades to undo the damage of a badly implemented privatization. Had these shares been held in trust and voted by occupational group, the rise of the Oligarchs might not have happened.
To reverse this trend in Russia, both a progressive tax system and a Social Security system are necessary. A Social Security system is developed in the way I have outlined above, with an employee contribution based on income and an employer contribution based on the average income in the federation. The employer contribution is paid in stock with structures in place so that management does not control how that stock is voted. Employee committees organized by trade union or professional society controls his stock, which is not available for sale until retirement. When enough stock has been purchased, profit is distributed to workers based on the labor cost as a percentage of total costs, with a separate capital distribution to the owners of capital, including the worker-shareholders. If these steps are taken, the oligarchy is overcome, bit-by-bit.
We welcomed then-President Putin’s ongoing investigation into how the oligarchy concentrated power. To the extent that corruption was used, sanctions criminal sanctions are needed against the oligarchs and their assets seized and redistributed to the employees.
Russia is also in dire need of infrastructure repairs and the modernization of agriculture. Construction contractors are needed to build roads. Set these firms up along the lines of Cooperativism. Contractors are also required to share their profits equitably as a contract condition. Roads are financed either through direct budget funding or through a license to charge user tolls. A commodity market and system of food storage reserves is to be set up along the American model. The world does not need to provide food aid to Russia. It needs to buy food from Russia.
Most of what I have said about Russia is applicable to China, where the connected have by and large circumvented the workers right to control the means of production. The prospects in China are dimmer, however, absent a revolution overthrowing the Communist Party. With the rise of a middle class in China and the continued tendency by its government toward repression, some type of revolution is almost inevitable. When it occurs, those corrupt officials who have deprived Chinese workers of their ownership rights are likely to be held to account, and the ownership of factories returned to workers.
There are likely firms in Russia, the other Republics of the former Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos that have not been looted by party members or other Oligarchs. These are easily privatized. To do so, first determine the initial share distribution. Add the total number of worker-months for the active employees and give each worker one share for every month they have worked at the enterprise. Form caucuses of each occupational group and have them elect members to the board of directors based on their relative number of shares held. Shares are restricted from sale until retirement, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the recent past. After this is done, bring in consultants to determine the capital requirements for modernization. If debt is required and credit available, incur it. If debt cannot be procured, value the existing company compared to its value after modernization and set the value of the shares to be sold accordingly. For example, if the workers hold 100,000 shares and modernization doubles the value of the company, then the amount of shares to be created is an additional 100,000 and the value of each share is 1/100,000 of the total financed in the capital markets.
With the development of third world multi-nationals, converting formerly communist enterprise to 21st Century Economics speeds the world to a new economy and a new polity.
