A Society of Owners

A Society of Owners

In his reelection campaign, President Bush visited Missouri-based Springfield ReManufacturing Company (SRC), an employee-owned company, and delivered a widely covered talk on the economy but said not a word about employee ownership. Our President stood in front of hundreds of SRC employees-hard workers who took their once-fading company, increased employment 900%, stimulated stock growth from 10 cents to over $80 per share, and built a company that is now widely recognized for their effective management style-and didn't utter a word of acknowledgement. (Democrats, it should be noted, weren't any better; John Kerry didn't say much about employee ownership, either.)The debate will go and on, and I'm happy to let others deal with all of this. I just wish our political leaders and opinion leaders would at least talk about employee ownership within this debate, especially since employee ownership could conceivably help create a true ownership society. Employee ownership, a sound idea, is still largely unknown to or misunderstood by most Americans, even our highly-educated business leaders. Making employee ownership a part of the national discussion on an Ownership Society would help move the idea forward in powerful, productive ways.And it wouldn't increase the deficit by a penny.