Continuing (the site is bouncing back and forth and I clicked the post button unintentionally): Since I can’t reconcile the two articles, I would question using this. I would love to be able to poswt the Bloomberg article to the Breitbarters that I challenge daily, but I’m not sure if it’s true or not. Fake news doesn’t serve anyone.

Thank you, and I see where it says that in the Bloomberg article. But the Willis Towers Watson report also asked 333 companies (which makes me think it’s the same report referenced in Bloomberg) and seemed to come to very different conclusions than in the Bloomberg article. since I can’t reconcile the two

+++Mark Foecking- Mr. Wolff’s report was based upon Bloomburg’s article by Rehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-26/what-companies-are-really-doing-with-their-tax-windfall-so-farbecca Greenfield. The info he provided is right in line with that article.

Is this the study that Dr. Wolff references early in the program? If so, their finding are nothing like he said: https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-US/press/2018/01/tax-law-fueling-changes-to-employer-benefits-and-compensation-programs

Interesting to see the other two comments about food cooperatives. I belong to a food coop here in Canada, the Kootenay Coop. http://kootenay.coop/all-about-us/our-history/
As you can see in the history, this Coop has been in operation for 40 years, and just finished a major expansion to a new location. I have shopped at Whole Foods and I can honestly say that they do not hold a candle to the Kootenay Coop on any level. Perhaps Whole Food is cheaper, but money is not why people choose to be members of the Coop. They choose it because the Coop prioritizes real values such as supporting local producers of everything from kombucha to produce to meats. And this is in a rather remote region of the country, with a relatively small population. Take a look at their page and maybe get some ideas about how to run a very successful coop. If it can work in a remote area of Canada I am sure it can work anywhere. And I do realize it is part of a long tradition, not only because it has been around for 40 years, but because I have been a member of various coops for my entire life. We have grocery store coops all across western Canada which do very well and also include gas stations, we used to have a soda pop coop which did all the recycling and bottling on site, and we also have housing cooperatives. They might be somewhat low key in this era of supreme neoliberal capitalism, but right about now every single working person in major cities on the West Coast is sure wishing they lived in a housing cooperative.

Hah! The public is so smart …. I have never searched out Prof Wolfe’s online presence and couldn’t have imagined making public comment about it; I like listening to him when I hear him but have never heard anything that stimulated me to “reach out”. Until today’s show. Just like Ms Shipley, I was really “triggered” by your guest’s search for a “new” solution to the gig economy in legislating cooperative ownership of companies. ‘Unlike today’s food coops, this would be one where everyone wholly owned the business’ … something like that was said.

Grrrrrrr. I would invite your guest to do some historical reading; I would invite Prof Wolfe not to let such comments slip by without correction. There is a long, international history of precisely the sort of solutions this guest advocates, and some periods of history have been comparatively successful in living this ideology. Start here perhaps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movement . And then check out this modern reality: https://community.coop/twinpines/

I wish I could say cooperative unions of food purchasing or anything else were alive and well today. It is undeniably a system under fire and younger generations especially seem comparatively complacent about letting their political power leach from them by “libertarian” herding. But these coops do still exist all around. Whole Foods almost took em all out — when they took over the iconic “Mrs Gooches” (not a coop it has to be said but a pioneer in making “whole foods” profitable) and displayed with pride a photo gallery of small coops around the country that they had opened up next door to and put out of business … that was a low point, but Whole Foods is pretty much down now and Coops are still hanging on. They’re out there, stores where workers and shoppers are all co-owners. Check them out, learn about this ideology, apply it by all means to mitigating the vicious destruction of labor via the “gig” economy — but don’t imagine that this is pioneering work. You fit squarely within a long, venerable tradition. And it’s worth learning that history so as not to sadly, destructively, non-productively repeat it. There are plenty of lessons to be learned there!

I listened to that last half of your interview with Ms Mary Douglas about food coops, etc. and having been a member of the E. Lansing MI food coop for many years I would like to give you some input. The E. Lansing food coop was in business for over 40 years with many ups and downs, the latest coming from Whole Foods moving in 2 blocks away plus another larger health food store that is 3 blocks away and in business for over 20 years. So unfortunately in Jan. 2017, E. Lansing food coop closed its doors! Since I no longer live in the area but helped it get off the ground many years ago, I do not think many people were too surprised about this happening.
Here in the Ventura CA area, there is a move to get a food coop off the ground which is taking years in the making. The cost of a membership is several hundred dollars which to many it seems like a great deal, to others not so much. What they are up against is: Lassens, health food store, been in the area for decades,; Sprouts natural food market, just open about 8 months ago,; Whole Foods market been in business for several years; and a employeed owned store called WinCO which has been in business for serveral years now.
The Ventura coop has been experiencing growing pains but now they have a new board and are trying monthly fund raisers so they hope to meet their goal by the end of 2018.
Just wanted to let you know about what is happening locally and in E. Lansing MI.
betsy shipley