🌰 pure dividend worker-owned public company

What if there was a company such that:

• every employee and contractor was given shares commensurate with their time there
• every employee and contractor was given special “current-effort” shares that they would forfeit when their employment ended
• The company was dedicated to staying small, profitable, and paying high wages
• no executive is allowed to make more in annual TC than 30x the lowest paid employee or contractor.
• the company would deposit profits into one of three funds:
  1. An emergency fund, in cash, of one year’s operating expenses
  2. An emergency fund, in ETFs, of two years’ operating expenses
  3. An R&D fund, in cash, an internally-approved (current-effort vote) budget to fund R&D and other capital-intensive growth opportunities.
• if the three funds contain enough money, then any remaining profit gets distributed to all shareholders as a dividend.
• The use of the R&D fund is at sole discretion of management, but the amount in the fund is approved on a 5-year basis by all current-effort shareholders.

What would the benefits of such a structure be? Would it become a long-standing sustainable business? What are the drawbacks? Are there ways in which existing co-op structures work better than this? Are there ways in which other structures work better?

Info:

• Inspired by: The Chinese Tech Playbook for Winning
• Related to:
  • 🌰 big businesses need to compete to survive, small companies hit profitability sooner and easier
  • [[❔ How to make a successful small business]]

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