DISCLAIMER: I'm left-libertarian

FIRST: Talking about "control of the means of production" here, NOT Scandinavian style capitalism (which seems to be pretty laissez-faire) with a fat welfare state, so please no "Because Europe" arguments, unless there's some deeper context than "it works in Sweden".

I'm pretty sure the solution to major corporate mergers that end up creating unaccountable oligarchies isn't to suck them all into a giant even more difficult to account for monopoly. I don't understand socialists argument that it would be better, considering that even if it did manage to be "democratically controlled" (and remained that way) our congressional system (I'm in the USA) (which most would agree is democratic in some form or another) seems to have a sustained approval rating of less than 10%.... which doesn't exactly bode well for its management capabilities, does it?

Socialism might work in a smaller, more homogeneous society, but the US is too diverse, with too many factions vying for control of resources and rent seeking. I view shared resources very poorly because of this perception, my 1/330,000,000 millionth (and decreasing) say in what happens to shared resources isn't worth the extra cans of SPAM in my cabinet. Since I'm in California, thanks to the state's democratic leanings, the Senate, the two party system, and Electoral College I'm pretty sure I'm better off finding ways to offshore resources and find tax loopholes than vote at this point.

SO, heres my alternative list so far:

Since I recognize capitalism isn't without its warts, I'd propose instead a continuous breakdown of giant corporations into smaller corporations, like the Trust busting back in the 1800s. This would allow for new businesses to form and increased competition to allow for organic growth in wages and decreases in prices. It would have to be continuous, because the natural market inclination is to vacuum up your competition (although this policy would quite possibly change corporate motives). Reform the educational system to pay for free college (a tax I'd gladly pay), but make it more electronic (so less campus overhead), with larger student loads, use free resources (less vastly overpriced textbooks), and more targeted (less unrelated general ed requirements). This would actually allow US workers to compete in the global sphere.

Turn to Africa for new economic opportunities. That's one thing Obama got quite right, and China knows it too.

Deconstruct the US empire (our generals couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag anyway). Force on force is useless, because everyone that could put up a fight has nukes anyway, and "tactical" warfare mostly involves an extremely expensive and prolonged policing of foreign jurisdictions (that basically never succeeds). That'd pay for quite a bit of college. China's gonna win, deal with it. If its any consolation, they get to pay for all the worlds f***ups now, not us. I'm more than happy to be fat and rich, sitting on the margins like the Swiss. As for the economic order, well China has to maintain that, it's what made them successful.

Mandate a max of 15 years of government service in a given jurisdiction, with at least some of that time going to train new people. This opens up new jobs and gives more people a chance to work in government, with less ossification of the workforce. Note that for those truly fantastic individuals, they can always get their equivalent job in another county, city, etc. If you can't reapply after 15 years, then you clearly haven't kept up with trends in your industry, or you just suck.

For elected officials set it at 8 years, then they have to take a term off. If they can get their job back after, they're good enough to stay. Yay congressional term limits!

Tax religious organizations. Tax them at your pleasure. People can practice their nonsense if they wish, but if they want to band together and hold assets as a group, then they can be taxed like everyone else.

ALL Government/Defense funded research is open source, with restrictions on WMD. End commercial academic journals in favor of open reviews.

Patents tied to recovery of R&D costs, eliminated for those industries that don't need them (like computer science)

End arbitration clauses (yeah these are ridiculous), but also make sure lawyers can't screw plaintiffs out of the settlement.

Ensure undocumented immigrants get the same workplace rights as US citizens. That'll help clear up a lot of issues. Greatly ease immigration laws, but then actually enforce them.

Severely restrict remittances and trade to immigrants home countries unless US citizens have property and employment rights in those said countries matching what we have for immigrants here. If they can come here, we should be able to go there. Encourage both immigrants and US citizens to immigrate to home countries, to help improve the economic situation there. Reverse brain drain.

Have a higher wage floor if you must, but expect automation to slowly creep out the jobs anyway, or employees to do more work to make up for less jobs being offered. And expect the government to slowly inflate away your gains. (There's a reason why $8 an hour isn't what it used to be).

UBI after automation starts to eat out the workforce en masse.

LARGE monetary rewards for permanent sterilization and not having kids. (That'll do more for the environment and global warming than forced density or public transportation ever would)