My apologies if somewhere in the first 83 comments someone has already mentioned this. The answer to Prof. Wolff’s question on democratizing the workplace is about who carries the risk. As Frank Knight noted many years ago, “ With human nature as we know it it would be impracticable or very unusual for one man to guarantee to another a definite result of the latter's actions without being given power to direct his work.” (Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, (III, IX, 11).) It struck me that Prof. Wolff was conceiving of workers cooperatives, which allows for a collective entrepreneur rather than someone with specialized skill in the task. Perhaps the best question Prof. Loury could have asked there is, are there some individuals who are better at being entrepreneurs than others?
My apologies if somewhere in the first 83 comments someone has already mentioned this. The answer to Prof. Wolff’s question on democratizing the workplace is about who carries the risk. As Frank Knight noted many years ago, “ With human nature as we know it it would be impracticable or very unusual for one man to guarantee to another a definite result of the latter's actions without being given power to direct his work.” (Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, (III, IX, 11).) It struck me that Prof. Wolff was conceiving of workers cooperatives, which allows for a collective entrepreneur rather than someone with specialized skill in the task. Perhaps the best question Prof. Loury could have asked there is, are there some individuals who are better at being entrepreneurs than others?