Justice and trust

With the demise of Marxism and socialism, the United States is becoming a m odel not merely for free enterprise, but also for employment practices worl dwide. I believe that free enterprise is the least worst economic system, g iven the alternatives, a position I shall assume, but not defend, here. How ever, I shall argue, a successful free enterprise political economy does no t entail mimicking US employment practices. I find even today in 1998, as I shall outline in more detail, these practices, when consistently carried o ut, by and large erode trust in the workplace, they are, on balance unfair to workers and managers, and, if Jeffrey Pfeffer is correct, they do not ma ximize long-term corporate earnings or growth. Getting clear on US employme nt practices and their weaknesses may help to shape other models for employ ment that neither contravene free enterprise nor are degrading to workers.