EDIT: LOL, downvoted faster than the post could have been read, with zero rebuttals. Achievement unlocked: KICK HORNET'S NEST.
(America-centric post because that's where I've spent my 54-years and know the most about.)
Capitalism ain't the problem. Capitalism for the economy and democracy for the government is the best we humans have figured out. Problem being, money has been funneled to the top. The top took our vote via lack of education, media control, and union breaking, and their power has been snowballing for the last 20-40 years. Now we're too ignorant and misled to vote in our own best interests, no unions to back us. We're seeing the end game, the end game of any unregulated system.
Said many times, almost every evil of capitalism gets nullified when the government disallows and breaks monopolies and megacorps. Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, argued vehemently against monopolies. Couldn't find a succinct quote because he explained the evils in depth. Sorry, no sound bite for this one.
Having grown up in the 70s and 80s, I am stunned by what is allowed. A handful of corporations own and control our health, food, entertainment, news, banking, everything. Education is the one thing that's not wholly corporate, and the oligarchs have had that sector in their sights for decades.
And they're not after education merely to skim more money. Education in history, math, critical thinking, current affairs, is how they can be beaten. FFS, we're repeating the mistakes of exactly a century ago, people can't figure when back-of-the-napkin math doesn't make sense and can't tell when they're being conned. I see the latter items on lemmy, daily.
Stumping for socialism? Well, the Soviet Union failed mighty fucking hard. "But that wasn't true socialism!" And capitalism isn't what you are experiencing now. In neither case does the name fit the theory. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Oh, and they're "socialist". Want to model their system?
"But socialism gives workers the power!" As the great socialist Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Coal miners aren't organizing to stop fossil fuels, and neither are roustabouts. Were those the workers you imagined handing power? How about insurance company employees who would be out of a job with universal health care?
We can't let workers vote for bread and circuses. Capitalists compete amongst themselves. That competition works for everyone, as long as unions are the brake pads on that train. We took the brakes off and blamed the train conductor wanting to go fast. Well, that's his job in this poor metaphor, hope it comes across.
Blaming capitalism is as naive as saying, "Trump did this!" We can acheive nothing but backlash from ignorant supporters. Instead say, "The GOP did this!" (politically) and "The billionaires did this!" (economically). Words matter if you want to win hearts and minds.
Actually, the anthropological evidence directly contradicts this. Humans evolved as a cooperative species - we survived because we shared resources and worked together, not because we out-greeded each other. Hunter-gatherers actively discouraged hoarding. Modern behavioral economics confirms this: people reject unfair offers even when it costs them money, and babies show fairness instincts before they're even socialized.
We're not wired for pure greed. We're conditionally cooperative - which traits dominate depends heavily on incentive structures and context.
On specifics:
Worker co-ops vs unions: Unions negotiate but don't control decisions. Co-ops give workers actual ownership and decision-making power. The incentive structure fundamentally shifts - you're not negotiating who's maximizing quarterly returns, you or distant shareholders, you're making decisions for your own workplace long-term.
Scale: Mondragon Corporation in Spain has 80,000+ worker-owners. Not 350M, but proves it works beyond small scale. You'd likely need a mix - co-ops, strong unions, public options for infrastructure, maybe some small scale traditional firms.
Regulation: Every system needs enforcement - agreed. The question is what we regulate and who has power. Currently we heavily regulate workers (what they can organize, strike over) while giving capital tremendous freedom. Why not flip that?
Concrete steps that aren't utopian:
But at that point is this even still capitalism? Worker co-ops replace private property with shared property - workers collectively own the enterprise, but only while they work there. You can't inherit it, can't be an absentee owner collecting dividends. You can't just hoard the labour of somebody else for eternity. When you leave, your stake goes to the remaining workers. That's fundamentally different from capitalist property relations, even if markets still exist. Call it market socialism, economic democracy, or just a shared property economy - the label matters less than recognizing you've changed something foundational, not just tweaked regulations.
So yeah your union idea is solid, but history clearly shows unions gradually lose ground without structural power. The ownership question - who actually controls the enterprise - might be the key.
And personally I wouldn't call it capitalism if capitalists aren't the ones who own everything.