Come the Revolution...

[getreal]

Lighthearted only!



What will you ban?

I'd ban all organisations which promote pseudoscience and imprison everyone who insists on believing it after a compulsory period of re-education.

Need to keep the people safe from unsafe ideas!

[sandymere]

I'd ban people who say "it can't do any harm" and extendable dog leads.

[Altfish]

The Daily Mail

[Ninny]

The person whose dog takes a daily crap on our lawn would be put up against a wall and shot. With dog-shit pellets, wet ones.

[jaywhat]

I agree

[Dave B]

People who block shop aisles or doorways chatting to their friends.

[Nick]

Being an economist, I'd fine people instead of banning them.

£5 each time they use the word "community".

[Dave B]

Being an economist, I'd fine people instead of banning them.

£5 each time they use the word "community".

So, you would not take advantage of the services available at a "Community Resource Centre" then? No "community spirit" in your heart? You would refuse anything described as "Community Assistance", or similar, if you were in need?

[Nick]

I'd much prefer "neighbourhood" or even just the name of the town or village. I just don't see why seemingly everything needs to be described as a "community". Eg the car-driving community, the faith community or perhaps worst of all, the world community! Grrrr!!!

OTOH, that's 15 quid you owe me...!

[Sel]

I would ban the enacting of silly laws with the reasoning: "If it saves one life..."

[Ninny]

People who block shop aisles or doorways chatting to their friends.

...and the people who step off escalators and stop to look around...

[Tetenterre]

Anyone who, lacking even a nodding acquaintance with a clue of how to reverse the thing, tows a caravan, horse-box or other trailer on narrow roads.

[tom in napa]

...and businesses, large and small, will be owned and operated by employees.
They will share profits and losses, borrow when necessary, and hire any managers they need.
There won't be a penny for pre-revolution gambling-addicted stock and bond owners.

[Alan H]

...and businesses, large and small, will be owned and operated by employees.
They will share profits and losses, borrow when necessary, and hire any managers they need.
There won't be a penny for pre-revolution gambling-addicted stock and bond owners.

Count me in!

[Bellman]

...and businesses, large and small, will be owned and operated by employees.
They will share profits and losses, borrow when necessary, and hire any managers they need.
There won't be a penny for pre-revolution gambling-addicted stock and bond owners.

Count me in!

Alan H, take legal advice before you join. You might do well and save your money but the other employees might spend theirs. The business might fail, through no fault of its own, owing trade debts, money borrowed and redundancy pay to the managers they'd hired. All employees who joined would be partners and jointly and severally liable for those debts but as you, being prudent, would be the only one with any cash, you'd have to pay all the debts. That's why businesses are usually run as limited companies, with shareholders (in the States called stockholders) providing capital, whose liability is limited. That system is invigorating and is what has made the commercial world go round; without it cash would dry up.

[tom in napa]

Bellman, please explain why 11,000 employee-owned businesses in the US of A haven't dried up since 2007?
Please also explain why Harvard Business Review would say such businesses experience less employee theft and do less harm to the environment.
And explain why the US Tax Code offers tax savings to business owners who, upon retiring, sell their businesses to employees.

[Bellman]

Bellman, please explain why 11,000 employee-owned businesses in the US of A haven't dried up since 2007?
Please also explain why Harvard Business Review would say such businesses experience less employee theft and do less harm to the environment.
And explain why the US Tax Code offers tax savings to business owners who, upon retiring, sell their businesses to employees.

Tom, I'm an English lawyer. I don't know how employee-owned businesses are structured in the US, so I don't know what you mean by an 'employee-owned business'; I suppose it could be a corporation (we would say 'a company') or a partnership. I'm sure most of them prosper but I'm equally sure that some don't. The business you described would here be a 'partnership'. I was pointing out the dangers of being a partner in a business in the UK; here when a partnership fails each partner is liable for all the debts and if only one has assets he has to cover the lot. That's why any investor, or employee, would be wise to require the formation of a limited company. The employees can be shareholders and thus protected also. You referred disapprovingly to 'stockholders' (we would say 'shareholders'). Companies aren't devices to allow capitalists to exploit workers; they oil the wheels of commerce by allowing investment with a quantifiable risk.

[tom in napa]

Bellman, I'm not a lawyer but I took two semesters of business law and I retired years ago. Employee ownership in the US of A is done with ESOPs, employee stock ownership plans, so the owned businesses are corporations with the usual protections. The decision-making process ranges between moderately autocratic and democratic.

Please don't give me the public relations line on business.
I know labor history here in the US of A; the word rapacious does not exaggerate owner behavior. Owners have always been subsidized by taxpayers.

[Bellman]

Bellman, I'm not a lawyer but I took two semesters of business law and I retired years ago. Employee ownership in the US of A is done with ESOPs, employee stock ownership plans, so the owned businesses are corporations with the usual protections. The decision-making process ranges between moderately autocratic and democratic.

Well Tom, Alan H would probably be quite safe joining such a scheme but, as I said, anyone doing so here would be wise to take legal advice. Small print should be read by someone qualified to understand it.

Please don't give me the public relations line on business.

I wasn't giving you any sort of line; I'm a lawyer not a PR man. I was just stating the way the commercial world works; it doesn't seem to work so well unless businesses receive injections of capital from investors who don't necessarily work in them. They have found that even in Russia and China, though they haven't learned it yet in North Korea.

[lucagrabacr]

I'll ban any kind of religious and nationalism teaching in public school (which are very prominent here in my country)