Approximately half of all ESOPs have fewer than 100 participants, and 67% are offered by companies that also provide other retirement benefits, including 401(k) plans, according to the report. The 8% increase brought the number of employees participating in an ESOP to 15.1 million in 2023; 14 million participated in 2014, the report said. However, the number of participating companies has remained relatively constant over the past decade.

“Software developers’ enthusiasm for generative AI stands in stark contrast to other Americans’ perceptions of the impact of large language models. Surveys show that most are neutral or skeptical; creatives tend to be outraged. But if programmers are more optimistic, it’s because their encounters with AI are diametrically opposed to what happens in many other occupations, says Anil Dash, a friend of mine, a programmer, and a tech executive with many years of experience. “The reason the tech industry in general, and programmers in particular, view LLMs differently from the rest is that, in creative disciplines, LLMs remove the deeper human parts of the work and leave you with the monotony,” Dash says. “And in programming, LLMs remove the monotony and leave you with the deep, human part.”

“Developers using AI focus on the overall form of the software, on how its features and facets interact. Because agents can produce working code so quickly, their human supervisors can experiment, testing things to see what works and discarding what doesn’t. Several programmers told me they felt a bit like Steve Jobs, who famously had his employees mass-produce prototypes so he could manage a large number of them and decide what he thought was right. A developer’s job now is more about judging than creating.”

"It's still unclear how professional programmers will fare. But their mix of euphoria and anxiety could be a harbinger for workers in other fields. Wherever a job involves language and information, this new combination of skills—part rhetoric, part systems thinking, part skepticism about the outcome of a bot—could become the foundation of administrative work. Skills that once seemed more technical and complex may turn out to be the easiest to automate. Social and imaginative skills are taking center stage. We'll produce fewer drafts and evaluate more, though perhaps we'll feel uneasy about our ability to evaluate. Abstraction may be coming for all of us."

In other words, at a social level AI also reduces the scale of capital, even though the AI industry itself is over-scaling up.

Today marks 10 years since an AI, Google's AlphaGo, first defeated a top professional Go player, Lee Sedol, the world champion. It was the moment when both China and the US realized they had entered a new phase of accelerated strategic competition... and they set about changing the rules. In mid-May, Trump won the Republican primaries in the US for the first time. On June 23, the pro-Brexit side won the referendum in Great Britain. A new era was beginning.

"These challenges will affect the United States even more severely, where almost every way people meet their needs (food, energy, health care) depends on extraction from other parts of the world."

She stated, "This is a positive step for Marine Products. We wanted an ownership model that would protect the company's legacy while also providing the best possible platform for the future."

Employee ownership achieves precisely that: it maintains the company's independence, enables long-term decision-making, and recognizes that our people are fundamental to our success. Employees know this company best, and this structure puts them at the heart of protecting its future.

John's point was that this outcome is not accidental. It stems from the way capitalism has been structured over the last half-century. The modern corporation is designed to maximize shareholder returns. This idea was reinforced by economists like Milton Friedman and Michael Jensen, who insisted that directors have no responsibility beyond profits. Once this doctrine is accepted, everything else follows: wage cuts, investment reductions, the creation of monopolies, and the relentless pursuit of short-term gains.

That's capitalism as we know it now. And it doesn't work.

But what struck me most about our conversation was how quickly we moved from criticism to alternatives. John reminded us that cooperatives and mutual societies are not a fringe curiosity. They have existed for centuries, and modern cooperative movements were born here in Britain. Thinkers like Robert Owen and John Stuart Mill saw them as practical ways to combine efficiency and equity.

In a statement, Anthropic asserted, “We maintained our exceptions for two reasons. First, we do not believe that current cutting-edge AI models are reliable enough to be used in fully autonomous weapons. Allowing current models to be used in this way would endanger American combatants and civilians. Second, we believe that mass surveillance of Americans at home constitutes a violation of fundamental rights.”

Employee ownership is present in every state in the country, with ESOPs being the most widespread form. Worker cooperatives and employee-owned trusts, while few in number, are forming at a faster rate. Over the past half-century, the number of ESOPs has increased from a few hundred in 1975 to 6,525 plans in 2023. (3) Based on Form 5500 data filed for plan years ending in 2023 (the latest available), these plans cover more than 15 million participants and hold an estimated $2 trillion in assets (including company securities and other retirement plan assets). Large ESOPs (those with 100 or more participants) generated $160.6 billion in direct benefit payments in 2023.

A backlog of £300 million (2024: £200 million) now supports the next phase of growth, giving the business strong visibility over the next year as it moves forward in the data center, transport and nuclear energy markets.

The improved performance resulted in £349,000 being distributed among all eligible employees in the fourth and highest profit-sharing payout since the transition to an employee-owned group in March 2021.

Human intelligence derived its inherent value from its scarcity. All the institutions of our economy, from the labor market to the mortgage market and the tax code, were designed for a world in which that premise held true.

We are now witnessing the erosion of that premium. Artificial intelligence has become a competent and rapidly improving substitute for human intelligence in an ever-expanding range of tasks. The financial system, optimized for decades for a world with scarce human minds, is being revalued. This revaluation is painful, messy, and far from complete.

But revaluation is not the same as collapse.

The economy can find a new equilibrium. Achieving this is one of the few tasks that only humans can accomplish. We need to do it right.

This is the first time in history that the economy's most productive asset has generated fewer jobs, not more. No framework fits, because none were designed for a world where a scarce input has become abundant. Therefore, we have to create new frameworks. The only question that matters is whether we build them in time.

<p>Puerto Rico now claims to be the root of the American cooperative movement and highlights the value of its legislation compared to the Spanish model.</p>

“We had the first cooperative in America,” he says. “Cooperatives came to Puerto Rico thanks to the Spanish, and Catholics created a cooperative in every municipality. Now, on my way to take my children to school, I pass by about 20 cooperatives. They’re everywhere. Here, you can’t grow up without knowing that cooperatives exist.”

"The payoff is mutual. Preliminary data from the nonprofit organization Ownership Works shows that operations with ownership programs achieved a return on invested capital (ROIC) 1.6 times higher than the market median. These programs drive operational improvements, from expanding margins to reducing employee turnover, by unlocking the code of the ownership mindset."

The company, founded in 1983, stated that it is now structured as an Employee Social Participation Plan (ESOP), which grants eligible team members a stake in the company in addition to existing retirement benefits. Advanced Roofing indicated that this change is designed to strengthen shared responsibility across the organization, from field teams to project managers and support staff, while maintaining leadership and daily operations.

“This milestone seeks to secure the future of the company and honor those who built it,” said Rob Kornahrens, founder and CEO of the Advanced family of companies. “Employee ownership allows us to stay true to our identity: independent, customer-centric, and committed to long-term relationships.”

“The crisis of capitalism is planetary. It is a system that disrupts nature and society, causing many to live and work in despair. Until now, the left has been unable to pose a practical challenge to it. In ‘Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy,’ Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams outline a new transformative politics that emerges from inspiring worker cooperative systems that promote planetary care from below and have the potential to undermine the capitalist status quo.”

"Based on extensive research in 15 countries, the authors examine case studies that explore transformative approaches to social reproduction, public power, nature protection, and territorial expansion in opposition to global hegemonic power. They also reveal the power of solidarities to generate emancipatory and utopian imaginaries in the global north and south."

"Satgar and Williams show how, against all odds, people are experimenting with deep democracy and building care systems to live differently and emerge from the planetary crisis."

"Since 2017, the group has had a stall in the Lugo market in A Coruña, where it sells a large part of its production. Other important outlets for the products are collective canteens, mainly in educational centers of the Costa da Morte and also in large companies."

"To address this problem, some local governments are turning to resident-run non-profit organizations, known as 'worker cooperatives,' as new local service providers."

"In these cooperatives, the residents themselves plan, develop, and manage the services their communities need, with the support of local government subsidies to cover initial and operating costs. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry is also working to create a framework that will make it easier for these organizations to obtain financial assistance and other forms of support."

"Taken together, these results point to a belief-based explanation for the limited diffusion of employee ownership. Even when alternative organizational forms function well, distorted perceptions can discourage people from participating in them and reduce political support. In this sense, the scarcity of worker cooperatives may reflect not only economic factors, but also a kind of market failure in information and belief formation."

"This perspective has important implications. If pessimistic beliefs are part of the problem, low-cost informational interventions, especially those based on credible evidence and expert input, can play a significant role in changing attitudes. Young people, in particular, seem receptive to such information at a stage when their career expectations are still evolving."

Spain between 2018 and 2025. We are experiencing the worst possible evolution: work is devalued (real wages are falling) but labor costs for companies are increasing (so competition for talent among them does not generate more job offers or raise wages).

This milestone will be celebrated at all 53 locations in nine states, where employees will gather for events, team meals, and to hear from the more than 30 current employees who were part of the first group of employee owners 25 years ago. Employee ownership has brought long-term benefits to Mead Lumber and its people.

"The Massachusetts Office of Business Development announced the launch of a statewide center that will help businesses explore and adopt employee-owned models across the state."

The Massachusetts Center for Employee Ownership (MassCEO), which opened on October 1, is a resource for companies interested in employee ownership models to support succession planning, build wealth for workers, promote income equity, and strengthen employee engagement.

They started by acquiring the company that employed three people. Now they employ 40 people, and they achieved a turnover of €4.5 million in 2024 and a net profit of 9%.

ISO 27001 and HDS (Health Data Hosting) certified, Widip serves approximately 800 clients, primarily SMEs in the Grenoble and Lyon regions, local governments, and public organizations specializing in health, disability, and child protection.

It specializes in cloud hosting, cybersecurity, outsourcing, technical support, and hardware sales. Founded in 2012, it became a #WorkCooperative in 2015 after being acquired by three employees. The director: "This changes the way we work: no one counts their hours here."

Furthermore, they rely heavily on economies of scope and the power of Open Source and AI tools. "Widip has developed a unified platform, MyWidip, that centralizes contract management, technical action tracking, and incident management. By integrating AI, the solution also enables automated initial diagnosis and the activation of rapid support. Mywidip, which is already used by some of the company's clients, will be launched in 2026. "Previously, we would have needed to create a company and raise funding," explains director Marc Perotto.