Even when I was living in a very liberal area, there were only a small handful of stores that advertised as worker co-ops. It’s funny too because those co-op stores were all incredibly popular and successful, so I don’t understand why they are so comparatively rare? The organizational structure seems simple to maintain, and has a high incentive for regular workers to go above and beyond since they directly benefit from the business being successful, so what’s the deal? I am speaking from a US centric view, so maybe things are different in Europe, but even with my limited knowledge I feel like they are relatively unpopular there too, but maybe not? I dunno.
Any given co-op into the hundreds of people or more is going to have noticeably more. There is just literally a greater number of people involved in almost every phase of decision-making. This cannot be made quickly.
Just because corporations are cumbersome does not mean they are going to be just as bad as co-ops in this regard. And just because we like co-ops does not mean we should not try to be somewhat objective about them. They are certainly not simply across-the-board superior in every way, that’s just fantasy. Except at small scales, then the cumbersomeness doesn’t really come into play.
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That’s not the same. Shareholders are not involved in the operation of the business. They simply vote every once in awhile, if they feel like it, for a board of directors. They are not involved in decisionmaking beyond this, nor do they operate a business.
There’s a difference between shilling and being a grown-up that has experience working in the industry.
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Yeah, you’re just spraying bs now, unless you want to do some of that education you’re talking about.
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No I never said that. I said there are far more people involved at every phase of decisionmaking. That is a different thing from what you are claiming I believe, is it not?
So, what are these shareholder structures you were talking about where large numbers of shareholders are involved in the regular operation of a business?
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Whether its my imagination or not, it is different from the bullshit you tried to say I believed, right?
What structures were you speaking of?
They’re making a very real and valid point. I’m part of a worker coop with over 100 members and I love it, i couldn’t work in a traditional business now. But it is SO much slower when comparing it to previously working in a corporate environment where, as a manager, I could make quick decisions everyday and get people to carry them out. In my current role, if I want to do something slightly differently there might be multiple meetings and different levels of decision making that have to happen, and it could take weeks or months.
I prefer this method, and what I like about it is that i can use the same processes to change policies on a higher level that I would never have been given access to as a corporate manager. But to suggest a corporate environment is slower or at least on a par shows you haven’t tried to make a policy change in a coop 😆 Some days it feels like my job is just meetings.