Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> By and large, I think I'm right, but that does not mean there aren't a few exceptions.

But your belief then is based on conjecture, as I said before. So is mine, but a positive belief (it can happen) is less strong than a negative belief (it can't happen).

We could look at the proportion of attempted co-ops that have failed, vs proportion of normal companies. That would be some interesting data.

> We do! It's called the limited liability company or corporation

This has nothing to do with your original notion of "risk" from 2 posts ago that you used to discredit co-operatives. There, we are talking about the reward split based on the risk split. Typical LLCs still have unbalanced ownership distribution.




Looking at proportions is meaningless: more people have tried and failed with regular companies because that's the default.

Let's look at how many of the world's leading companies are worker's cooperatives: very, very few. And this despite the fact that companies generally don't stay 'at the top' all that long. There is plenty of room for new companies in many fields.

> This has nothing to do with your original notion of "risk"

So what's your proposal? I don't really understand what you are discussing if you think it is not related.


> Looking at proportions is meaningless: more people have tried and failed

That's why I said "proportion", not "more". I agree the data would not be a firm indicator because there are lots of other factors involved, but it would still be interesting.

> So what's your proposal?

It's not a proposal, just an observation to counter arguments of "impossible" - if more people are more equally involved in funding a company, so the distribution of risk is shared, there is more incentive to create a democratic structure.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: