[nicoburns]

> Your average corporation is a soulless greedy machine, constructed purely for extracting money. Trying to put a lipstick on a pig doesn't change the fact that it's still a pig.

I think average working conditions did get worse over the past few decades, primarily because so many more jobs are working for such companies. Consider how many more grocery store jobs are working for a huge supermarket chain vs owning your own small store in 2021 vs 50 years ago.

[toyg]

Owning your small store is extremely stressful, and arguably provides worse working conditions (on average) than the equivalent middle-management job in a supermarket chain. However, it might well be perceived as more satisfying by the worker, because s/he is less alienated from business outcomes and more autonomous in long-term choices. In this, the article probably has a point (although coops are not a panacea - if you don’t enjoy the political process, you might even find them more annoying than a traditional structure).

[hallway_monitor]

Having worked for a midsize customer owned cooperative with a large engineering shop, I think there is something to be said about the structure. Our board was our customers, who cared about continued support and customer service rather than quarterly earnings. Things did go downhill correlated with a new CEO, but it was a great culture to work in for a while.