Funny you mention co-ops, there was a good interview on the Majority Report yesterday with the director of the National Center for Employee Ownership that should give some food for thought:BryanM wrote:This is something I've been thinking about the difference between capital ownership and worker ownership. In a co-opt, the incentive to expand is nearly non-existent (your share of the take is based on your labour, after all. Spending your money to give jobs to other people only makes sense if those "other people" are family or friends, and you don't have to sacrifice much or anything to do it.). So when the two collide, the capital model of ownership is superior at creating a universal brand.
It's a concern I have when Richard Wolff talks about his ideas of how the workplace should be like - I don't see how the eventual nepotism won't begin to parallel capitalism eventually.
https://youtu.be/feJqwJaa43w?t=1010
I don't think your idea about co-ops only expanding for family and friends holds water. Willy Street Co-op recently opened a second branch in Middleton, Hy Vee is an employee owned big box grocery store chain that's expanding all over the country. There are all kinds of large co-ops growing all over the place.
They probably won't do scumbag moves like opening a kamikaze franchise next door to a new competitor to operate at a loss for a few years before the competitor shuts down and the franchise follows suit.
The main problem with co-ops, as pointed out in the interview, is the massive glut of money in private equity thanks to the Bush/Trump tax cuts that allow wall street vampires to massively out-bid employees for buying a company off a retiring entrepreneur.
Bernie Sanders brings the big-dick energy.szycag wrote:https://berniesanders.com/anti-endorsements/
This is the coolest political move I've ever seen in my life. It's like a who's who of douchebags.