Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Enterprise and Corporation 81Retail enterprises owned by their customers are commonbut usually marginal, accounting for less than 5 percentof retail sales in Britain, less in Germany, and less than1 percent in the United States. Enterprises are often alsojointly owned by other enterprises that want the productsof the joint enterprise. They account, for example, for 80percent of the U.S. hardware market. Associated Press issuch a jointly owned enterprise. Farm enterprises commonlyestablish such jointly owned enterprises to providethem with seeds, fertilizer, and equipment.Not very common the world over are nonprofit enterprises,owned neither by investors nor by customers nor byemployees—not owned at all, yet nevertheless with legalstanding and an authorized controlling governing board. Inthe United States, however, they account for a large share,sometimes more than half, of such human services as hospitalcare and higher education.Often bitter questions about private property and its unequaldistribution continue to be debated. For all but a fewdissenters, personal private property rights—your rights to“your” clothing, for example—are not much disputed. Butwho should own an enterprise is indeed disputed. It is aquestion not about personal property rights but about controlover productive assets—the rights to control the use ofsuch assets as land, buildings, and machinery, and thenclaim their earnings.The common corporate form of organization separatesownership of assets from actual control over them. Formalownership—which means possession of stock certificates—leaves most stockholders passive and powerless. The controlof the assets of the conventional corporation lies in thehands of a small number of executives chosen by membersof a de facto self-perpetuating governing board or by an ex-