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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAre Co-ops the Future of Capitalism?
There's a fascinating article at Alternet.org: UN Declares 2012 The Year of The Co-op: Is This The Future of Capitalism?
The Industrial Age gave the us the giant, top-down, vertically-integrated corporations that concentrated wealth in the hands of a very few mega-rich and gave us two Gilded Ages (We're living in one now!). Now a new model of worker owned companies is challenging the big, top-down corporations.
<snip>
The next few paragraphs are a discussion of the growth of the modern co-op movement. There's also an invitation to start your own co-op:
The article goes on to discuss the role that legislation can play in encouraging the growth of co-ops, and the need for such legislation.
Co-ops can also have a major role to play in reducing poverty and inequality, as the workers of Mondragon, Spain proved when they started their own co-op:
Michael Moore, Jim Hightower, and the authors of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Always Work Better have all spoken of the need for new forms of corporate control to reduce inequality. The growth of new technologies, such as 3-D printing and molecular nanotechnology may provide the opportunity for new business models. The egalitarian co-op may be the dominant model in our future.
Read the rest at the Alternet Visions section.
handmade34
(22,756 posts)"The former Berts Mobile Home Park is now Milton Mobile Home Cooperative, Inc., Vermonts fifth collectively-owned trailer community, following a months-long effort by resident Todd Alexander, his neighbors and non-profit housing groups.
Residents purchased the 19-acre park from David Pecor for $2.7 million. Pecor inherited the park from his father, Bert, who established it in 1967. The sale was finalized Thursday..."
Magoo48
(4,712 posts)Fool Count
(1,230 posts)intention to reform it. The Law on Co-ops was the first step of the "reform". In retrospect,
it was just a step to get people accustomed to elements of market economy, with full-blown
capitalist restoration to follow. Could it also work as an intermediate step for a transition
in the opposite way? Perhaps.
ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)For example, HOAs are a form of co-ops.
To be effective in the long term, many Americans need to adopt a more community oriented view in many areas