Who Owns Market Basket?

The DeMoulas family does, by whatever share proportion each member holds.

Employees do not, customers do not, and government does not. "Ownership" means the right to control something, and we don't have it. They do. And that's exactly the way it ought to be.

The right to own property comes directly from the right to own oneself and one's labor. If the right to property is impaired, the right to own oneself is impaired. And when that happens, slavery is right around the corner.

Everyone is free to leave, if we don't like it. You can quit your job and get another. I can shop with a competitor. If either of us did that, the owners of MB would pay attention; for they depend on satisfied help and satisfied customers. That's what's happening right now; you have their attention. Please, don't overplay that advantage by calling in the agents of force, government. Force is all that government people know.

Don't take just my word for that: George Washington knew it too. He said "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

But the DeMoulas family inherited MB. Do they deserve that?

It doesn't matter. They own it, just as your son owns the bike you gave him. Interfere with inheritance rights (eg with death taxes) and you interfere with the right to dispose of your own property any way you see fit.

But we work for MB. Don't we have a right to control it?

No. No more than I, as a customer, have such a right. You have a contract with MB, nothing more. You certainly have the right to get together and offer to buy the Company - that's one of my suggestions - and you can tell the owners what you'd like them to do. Or, as above, you can quit. But nothing more.

So please, use persuasion instead. Show them a way out of this mess, with a fix that leaves everyone happy.

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