Employee Participation in Capital Growth

Abstract

Only 3–8 per cent of those eligible to vote in Britain have a direct shareholding in British industry. Britain's capital owners are so few that they are continually at risk of “source punishment”. The Law of Social Punishment says: “Small‐minority groups are at risk of social punishment regardless of whether they appear to be privileged or under‐privileged”. History contains many examples of both privileged and under‐privileged minorities being victimised. The vendetta against capital in Britain is harmful to the whole economy and it promotes the continuation of an out‐of‐date ideological battle between the supporters of Adam Smith and those of Karl Marx. Yet neither Smith's description of how capital is accumulated nor Marx's description is an acceptable explanation of how capital is accumulated today inside the successful joint stock company. An up‐to‐date description of how capital is accumulated leads logically on to a policy of employee participation in capital growth. Britain needs such a policy, as effected in the United States and France, to create shareholders out of employees in the more successful companies and thereby promote a greater sense of employee participation in the economic system.

Citation

Copeman, G. (1976), "Employee Participation in Capital Growth", Management Decision, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 71-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001100