at this point, i don't know that i can view selling one's company as anything other than an evil act
owning and running a company is already mired in a complex set of circumstances and power relationships that i don't have a firm grasp on, but i at least see an aspect of "thing i built alongside other people and have pride in and want to see succeed as a reflection of myself".
and it's like "yes, get the bag, take the money and run" but also, fucking no way dude, have some pride and dignity. “take the money and run” only applies when no one is reliant on you. once you have staff and people relying on you, you can't just sell out without ruining lives.
my brother responded to the above with:
it's moments like that where the absurdity of how companies are structured comes into view. like you're telling me there's one person who decides the livelihoods of everyone at this company? who has complete and arbitrary control over every decision the company makes with no input from the people who are actually doing the labor? what the fuck is that
what the fuck indeed
There's a (King/CEO) at the top who calls the shots, and he divides his empire into smaller pieces to be managed by (Dukes/Middle management). Everyone else is a (serf/worker) who has to do as they're told.
These power structures are convenient for "getting things done." As the King/CEO, your word is law, so you don't have to get bogged down in endless discussions about strategy. If necessary, you can move your resources quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, that's also a single point of failure. As long as there have been kings, there have been stories about them getting corrupted by power or greed. Ideally, that's why you balance out the supreme power of a CEO with a board of directors, or, even better, a worker's union.
The main reason we allow these constructs in a democratic society is that they are optional. Unlike feudalism, under capitalism you (allegedly) have a choice about which lord gets to buy your labor output. If you don't like it, you can hit the bricks, as the popular saying goes. You can even opt out entirely and choose a different management structure for your company, like a coop.
But when a company gets sold, it gets proper weird. Why do we allow a person to "own" their company, and by extension, the labor output of the workers in his employ? Don't those workers get a say in it? No, goes the thinking, because if they don't like the new owner, they can just work elsewhere. And that's why so many workers aspire to be the owning class one day. It's the only way to stop getting jerked around and stomped upon.
