Co-operative Enterprises - voluntary socialism, basically

[Jack Haywood]

There are a variety of kinds of enterprises out there other than your typical mega-corporations controlled by shareholders that hold billions in wealth like Microsoft or Amazon. One kind is a co-operative or co-op, which as defined by the International Co-Operative Alliance is 'an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise' based on the values of 'self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity'.
There are also different subtypes of co-ops, such as consumer co-ops which are jointly owned and controlled by the people that use its services/goods (which credit unions, housing co-ops and utility co-ops fall under) and worker co-ops where only the employees are in charge of it and multi-stakeholder co-ops that try to represent both the workers and the consumers.

Now that I have given a brief explanation, it's time for you all to reveal your thoughts on co-ops and whether they present a good alternative to businesses that don't follow the co-op model. The discussion starts now!

 

[Lemmingwise]

I mean, it's always nice to have a mission statement and to string together a couple of vague values and adjectives, but it's about what choices you make down the road that matters, not just your intentions when you set out.

There's no reason a co-op will necessary be less likely to use sweatshop labour, or if it's a financial co-op, to invest in weapon or gambling ventures. It's completely possible for it to be more or less efficient, more or less moral, more or less profitable.

Joint-ownership can lead to a productive org, as everyone has a stake, and it can lead to a less productive one where some people coast as others do the work.

Just knowing the ideological system really isn't a guarantee.

 

[No Exit]

The idea is nice but over time as the company grows and power dynamics shift it's just going to become a board room of executives with a CEO. People will usually be willing to sell their share of a company when they want out and someone who wants control will be there to buy it.

 

[heyilikeyourmom]

That sounds an awful lot like stealth-communism there, comrade.

 

[Feline Darkmage]

That sounds an awful lot like stealth-communism there, comrade.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[Philosophy Zombie]

REI seems to be doing fine because it's a hobbyist chain with a small, dedicated consumer base.

But in general no, there's a reason no Fortune 100 company is a co-op, it's a shitty way to run a business.

 

[Emperor Julian]

The UK co-op group is pretty solid so I don't see why not.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

There are many Co-Ops where I live and they more or less stick to county lines. They're dinosaurs from the late 1800s when they were much more active but that've somehow managed to survive. My power and natural gas are both co-ops. The big one near me also runs a large grocery store and several gas stations. I'm a "member" and shop there as often as I can because the money stays in the community and I get a check back from them for 10% of whatever I spent at the end of the year, it's a good deal.

I've lived in more cosmopolitan areas where the "co-ops" were all shitty shops run by smelly, poorly tattoo'd white people and I was not a fan.

 

[Never Scored]

I'm generally against people being forced into socialism at the point of a gun. If it's voluntary, I think it's OK. I myself am a member of a Credit Union because trusting a for-profit whose goal is to extract as much wealth for investors with my money seems like trusting a wolf to watch your chickens. It doesn't mean the wolf is bad or evil, it just means my interests and the wolf's interests are in conflict with one another.

I think co-ops are a good solution for rural areas who just want jobs.

Let's say you live in a very rural area with lots of crab apple trees, and your town has a killer apple sauce recipe. There's another town closer to the city(the market) that also has a lot of crab apple trees and a great apple sauce recipe. Global Apple Corp is looking to get into the apple sauce business and they're going to build an apple sauce factory. They look at the town with better infrastructure and a direct route to the city and they look at your town with a dirt road that meanders through the hills. Obviously when competing for these investor dollars, your town is at a disadvantage, because on a pure logistical level, it costs more to get apple sauce from your town to the market. This is where co-ops come in. If all you care about is preserving your town and injecting a few jobs into the economy, starting a co-op together as a town is a great way to do it. Global Apple Corp has to provide a return to investors and therefore have to set the price of a jar of sauce at a level that covers production, maintenance of the facility and shipping with an additional profit to be distributed to investors. If the co-op in your town is only there to give people jobs, you only have to worry about production costs, shipping and maintenance. If you don't generate an actual profit it doesn't matter as long as all the costs are covered, because the point was just to produce employment to keep your town alive. This could potentially allow you to offset the increase in shipping costs to get the product to market, allowing you to compete with Global Apple Corp's price.

Obviously this isn't factoring in things like, maybe Global Apple Corp can buy jars for half the price you can and that'll drive up your production costs, but that can be offset by that fact that there is a large consumer cohort that would prefer to buy from a small rural co-op as opposed to a big global corporation.

The point is, if you're in an area that big corporations don't want to invest in because it's not profitable enough, you have a viable product whose sales can cover the cost of production and all you want is jobs, a non-profit co-op may provide a viable means to stay just competitive enough to bring outside money into your local economy.