[louwrentius]

I agree, fire the CEO. But I have a slightly different take that doesn't involve AI. What if we indeed get rid of the entire C-suite?

Even better still: why are companies and orgs hierarchical? Why is there always a - for lack of a better word - dictator in charge? AI CEO is still an AI dictator.

We are permitted to vote, but democracy in everyday life, that's a bridge too far, chaos, riots in the streets, cats and dogs living together.

Maybe there are too many 'temporary embarrassed billionaires' here on HN, but you have more in common with the average bum in the street than any of 'that' class.

It's time that we as a people extend democracy towards the workplace and operate like a cooperation, working on the base of consensus. This is not a new idea, but it won't give you a chance to become a billionaire, and that's exactly the point.

[cmeacham98]

What you're describing is called a "worker cooperative" and they are somewhat rare but do exist already in real life.

[hellcow]

Are they rare? Aren’t credit unions worker cooperatives? Insurance is often structured this way, and I’ve heard of farmer collectives too. I have a worker cooperative grocery store nearby. I do photography as a hobby and there’s all kinds of photography cooperatives, including Magnum which is incredibly famous in that world. I’m in an HOA which is another cooperative.

This doesn’t seem rare to me.

[OkayPhysicist]

Most "co-ops" are customer co-ops (Credit Unions, for example, are owned by their members, most grocery co-ops are membership programs, REI is/was the same). Farmer co-ops are owned by a collection of farmers, to pool resources for selling to consumers, but most employees aren't co-owners. Worker's co-ops are rarer, but you find them in the taxi industry pretty often, and in home care.

[hellcow]

Today I learned. Thank you!

[hahn-kev]

I think credit unions are often owned by the customers or members. Not the employees.

[homarp]

eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation (discussed on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22287794 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22287794)

or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igalia (can't find any discussion related to their coop model - there is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37799973 without any comment )

[shimman]

No, what they are describing is workplace democracy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_democracy

[boringops-dan]

There's really quite a lack of innovation in corporate structures.

I (still) believe that we're going to see a rejection of this MBA-short-term-fuck-the-long-term thinking, and next-gen companies will form treat their employees like the adults they are.

That employee goodwill and motivation will make them outpeform the current system. Thnk of the opposite of work-to-rule or 'quiet quitting': An actual motivated workforce.

[louwrentius]

I agree, but I don’t care about performance, just that we do and build things we need and nothing more. We don’t need to stripmine the entire world for profit.

[jimbokun]

In the US democracy we still have a strong central executive with a lot of decision making power.

Parliamentary systems do not always have a President per se, but generally have a similar role of an individual who can quickly make decisions in emergencies and crises.

So in practice I’m not sure democracies are all that different in practice.

[louwrentius]

I think current democracies could also shed the notion that there must be an elected “dictator”, making decisions in crises should also be made with cooperation, especially then.

[bshepard]

It would be worth thinking harder before moralizing.