Cooperatives

This is a story about capitalism and cooperatives. It's also a story about how cooperatives will defeat capitalism, causing it to hide in a deep, dark hole where cooperatives will eat what capitalism leaves behind. Or, alternatively, you can look at these websites to get more info. National Coop Business Alliance: http://www.ncba.coop/abcoop.cfm, National Association of Housing Coops: http://www.coophousing.org/, US Federation of Worker Coops: http://www.usworker.coop/front.

Additional note: cooperatives are magnificent and work to give power back to the people--but sometimes, coops, like corporations, can get too successful and expansive and lose their coop morals. There is a certain point when we have to ask ourselves whether the coop model can actually replace capitalism... and whether that is even the point. When do coops become too big for their own good and how do we carry out the Rochdale Principles to the fullest of its original intentions?

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• co-op
• cooperative
• capitalism
• harmony
• working together
• cooperation
• love
• people power
• democracy

[LucBertolotti]

@bigpapi255 Yeah there's a problem in definitions. I think if the world was run by cooperatives it would be better to speak of cooperativism.

[bigpapi255]

@DoveDancing Capitalism is a word with too many meanings. To some it's just another word for a market system, but for me it's just one kind of market system where owners of capital rule over those who don't have the investments or property to live off of wealth. Another kind of market system is cooperativism or mutualism where you have the consumer choice and free enterprise, but the owners of the business are the employees rather than an outside group of shareholders.

[blazelmtdedtn]

@DoveDancing no.

[DoveDancing]

Don't kid yourself. Anytime you sell something you are capitalizing and this is capitalism, undeniable. Its all about intention. It can be social capitalism but it is still capitalism nonetheless.... people are so knee jerk.

[ProNorden]

Work Co-ops, Agrarian Economics, Fair Trade Tariff/Import Tax policies, etc. ...

'Each Nation should be its own best market first'.

The kinds of things favored by folks as various as Nick Griffin, Patrick J. Buchanan, Michael Moore, and the E.F. Schumacher Society.