Re:Why Women Leave Engineering (2011) [pdf]
by mseebach on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @10:07AM
(#14957863)
You seem to be assuming bad faith in place of a more likely explanation.
Various models of funding are predicated on taking equity, either directly in exchange for cash or as collateral for a loan. The problem is that as soon as you issue equity to investors, the business isn't worker-owned (and, crucially, worker controlled) anymore, it's (at least partially) investor owned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_cooperatives
Self-directed businesses are totally viable - until they need funding. Then any approach to possible investors is likely to be met with "Ha ha ha ha no."
We simply don't have a culture that supports non-hierarchical businesses. There are no role models in the media, hardly anyone has personal experience of a working in a co-op, and most of the population doesn't even know what a worker co-op is.
Wall St and VCs are implacably hostile to any business model that gives workers economic power.
Given those challenges, the fact that successes still exist suggest the idea has unexplored potential.