The author doesn't have the balls to call his book communism at work but that would be a more apt title. Capitalism has been examined to death and we know about all its shortcomings so there is not much new here. The idea of worker run businesses is not exactly groundbreaking either. Maybe the idea of excluding cleaners from the surplus appointing committee is new (if somewhat wacky).

What annoys me about these books is that they never offer a critical approach to what they are proposing (at least this one has a comment at the end that flaws in this solution inevitably exist). Why not strain your enormous brain a little and discuss some potential ones? For example the main problem with all these utopian solutions I can immediately see is that they all start with the delusional premise that people will act in a coordinated and selfless way like ants. The reason capitalism works is that it starts off with the opposite premise. And it works because that's the reality. ( )

After re-reading this book rather rapidly, I remember that I don't disagree with most of what he says. His critiques of capitalism and of how capitalism works in the United States are correct I believe, however, I believe that his Solutions are missing a lot, because they leave out anyone who is unable to work for various reasons. The idea of workers cooperatives also assume that all of the Personalities in The Cooperative Venture are equally strong, which is not necessarily the case. Many reasons, we need both a federal jobs guarantee and a basic social income or basic citizens income as called for by dr. Martin Luther King jr. in addition to workers cooperatives. ( )

After re-reading this book rather rapidly, I remember that I don't disagree with most of what he says. His critiques of capitalism and of how capitalism works in the United States are correct I believe, however, I believe that his Solutions are missing a lot, because they leave out anyone who is unable to work for various reasons. The idea of workers cooperatives also assume that all of the Personalities in The Cooperative Venture are equally strong, which is not necessarily the case. Many reasons, we need both a federal jobs guarantee and a basic social income or basic citizens income as called for by dr. Martin Luther King jr. in addition to workers cooperatives. ( )

Recommended by Leonard Joy, February, 2014. ( )