Comments by "Michael Mappin" (@michaelmappin1830) on "Valuetainment"
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@michelem7786 , who said anything about the value of a single worker being more or equal to the wealth produced by a company has a whole?
You don't seem to understand that employees could not get the full value of their labour when they work at a capitalist company. When they work at a socially own company, then they do get all of the well that their labour produces, after expenses, of course. that's why the income disparity between the highest and lowest paid worker at a Cooperative generally Falls between 3 to 1 and 7 to 1. That's because it's usually not possible for a worker regardless of their education or talent to work more than seven times harder than someone else. When a Cooperative produces 25 billion dollars in sales, that money goes to the workers. That is more conducive to a free market and thriving economy. However, when a company such as Walmart or Amazon does 25 billion in sales, that money goes to idle shareholders, many of whom are not even in the same country.
You see, capitalism doesn't even make sense economically or mathematically. Jobs are tight consumption. If consumption slows, people get laid off and can't consume. They then have to compete for the remaining jobs, and that competition drives the value of Labor down even further. but how can workers afford the purchase all of the goods and services they are producing if they only get a fraction of the wealth that their labour produces? at the workers only get paid 25% of the wealth, they're only going to be able to afford 25% of what's in circulation. capitalist companies want to maximize profit. they accomplished that by keeping wages as low as possible while getting the workers to produce as much as possible. That creates a huge disparity between purchasing power and the goods and services that need to be purchased in order to maintain jobs through consumption. It's a contradiction. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme.
however, worker-owned companies don't have that problem because wages are commensurate with production output. if your labour produces $1,000 worth of wealth, you now have $1,000 to spend. however, when your labour produces $1,000 worth of wealth at a capitalist company, you'd be lucky if you end up with half that amount of money. every dollar that goes to you is one less dollar that goes to your employer. every extra dollar that goes to your employer, that's one less dollar you have to spend into the economy for goods and services produced by your fellow workers.
also keep in mind that markets are not unique to capitalism. Production and businesses are not unique to capitalism. Merely selling the product of your labour is not capitalism. If you write a book and you sell it in the market, that is not capitalism. If you grow vegetables and sell them in the market, that is not capitalism. Capitalism requires capitalizing on other people's labour. also keep in mind that labour includes both mental and physical efforts. our economy is the sum total of our work. Capitalist are just middlemen parasites that reduce purchasing power.
for example, not too long ago Bill Gates bought a big chunk of the Canadian railroad. Billions of dollars that used to go to workers is now going to mr. Gates. That's billions of dollars no longer being spent into the economy. Any erosion the first of the power has to be offset with access to credit. Credit keeps the system going temporarily but inevitably the interest attached to that credit will reduce purchasing power even further. that is a natural byproduct of capitalism and is required to maintain jobs through consumption. that's because workers do not get paid the full value of their labour, we can produce far more than we're capable of consuming and it takes less and less labour to produce more and more stuff with each passing day.
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@useresu301 , there's hundreds of thousands of them. Almost 60% of the United States gets its electricity from those types of workplaces. https://youtu.be/wBJADlN2Bic
There are many institutional forms of public and social ownership. For example,
>>> Forms of social production:
• State-owned Enterprises (SOEs)
corporations are owned directly by a government (National or sub-national), and operate according to a mandate that may include social criteria.
In advanced capitalist countries many SOEs have been privatized under neoliberalism. But many still operate successfully (in diverse Industries including manufacturing, Communications, Transportation, utilities, and resources), accounting for up to 5% of total GDP in some OCED countries. Examples of successful wholly or partially -owned SOEs include Volkswagen (Germany), State Oil (Norway), EDF group (France), and Metsahalltus (Finland). In many developing and former communist countries (including China, Brazil, Russia and Vietnam) SOEs are much more important.
• producer cooperatives.
A producer Co-operative is owned collectively and equally by the people who work in it, and is usually governed according to "one person, one vote."
Cooperatives are one of the most common forms of nonprofit Enterprises. There are hundreds of thousands of cooperatives in the world; the United Nations estimates that half the world's population are members or customers of a Cooperative. Examples of successful producer cooperatives include Fonterra (New Zealand's largest Dairy producer), the ReWe Group (a major tourism company in Germany), Huawei (a giant Chinese electronics manufacturer, 99% owned by its workers), and Japan's Farm sector where over 90% of the Farmers belong to cooperatives). Strong networks of producer cooperatives are the dominant economic structure in Spain's Mondragon region and Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.
• Consumer Cooperatives.
A consumer Cooperative is owned collectively and equally by the people who buy its products, and is usually governed according to "one person, one vote."
Many retail cooperatives are formed to help consumers obtain lower prices and challenge the market power of private retailers. In Denmark over one-third of all retail sales are conducted through cooperatives. The E.Leclerc Cooperative operates over 500 supermarkets in France. Canada's Mountain Equipment Co-op runs the country's largest retail Network for outdoor recreation products.
• Recovered companies.
Workers in a bankrupt company effectively expropriate the Enterprise and attempt to keep it in business.
In the years after the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina, over 200 bankrupt factories were taken over by their workers, who continue to operate them (with some government support for refinancing). 2013 law in Bolivia gives workers the explicit legal authority to take over filled firms.
• Community Trusts.
A Community Trust is a non-profit Corporation, usually exempt from normal business taxes, created to purchase and development land, housing, and other Community Asset.
There are over 250 Community Land Trust operating in the US, with the explicit mission to undertake affordable housing develop, Environmental Conservation, and local job creation on lands that they own. Governance is based on a shared model that includes lessees and elected local representatives.
• Benefit corporations.
A benefit Corporation is owned by private shareholders, but obliged by its Charter to pursue social and environmental goals in addition to profit.
"B Lab" is an association which publishes an annual Global ranking of successful benefit corporations. Recent recognized firms include Echele! a tu casa (a benefit corporation based in Mexico City which develops low-cost housing for residents of poor neighborhoods), and Give Something Back (a major office supply company in California with a Community Development mandate).
• Community and nonprofit Enterprises.
Jobs in especially hard-hit regions and communities can be created by nonprofit Community Development agencies, drawing on local resources including training, housing and alternative Finance.
Community Economic Development (CED) is an "up by the bootstraps" effort to mobilize local resources that would otherwise idle, providing local Services, developing infrastructure, and providing unemployed people with job experience and training. Decentralized CED initiatives can be important in many developing economies, and in poor or remote regions of developed countries. Some entire communities have been founded and sustained on Cooperative principles in many countries.
>>>> Forms of socialized Finance:
• public banks.
Public banks are owned by national or sub-national levels of government; they take deposits, issue loans ( create credit), and facilitate financial transactions.
Public banking is widespread in many parts of the world. Countries in which publicly- owned banks play a major role include Japan (the JapanPost Bank is the largest Savings Bank in the world), Germany (with two parallel networks of public Banks: Sparkassen and Landesbanken), and China ( where are the state-owned banking system helped China completely avoid the 2008 - 09 World recession).
• Credit unions and Cooperative Banks.
Credit unions and other Cooperative banks are owned by their members, and govern according to "one person, one vote."
there are at least 60,000 credit unions and Cooperative banks in the world, with trillions of dollars in Combined assets; they are the most developed and Powerful form of cooperative enterprise. Large credit unions are important Financial players in many countries, including: Netherlands (the huge Rabobank has 60,000 employees and 750 billion in assets), and France (three major cooperative bank federations account for almost half of all consumer banking), Sweden (the JAK Bank makes loans without charging interest at all), and Canada (the Desjardins credit union movement is the largest financial institution in Quebec).
• Investment and development Banks.
Publicly-owned investment Banks specialize in targeted lending and investing in key companies (including private companies)with strategic economic importance.
State-owned investment or development Banks play an important role in sector development policy and many countries, including France, the Nordic countries, Japan, and Brazil. Singapore's Temasek Holdings was established to foster broad economic and industrial development there; it partially owns over 50 companies, and is consistently profitable.
• Social investment funds and Foundations.
These Financial funds are mandated to make investments in various firms or social Enterprises, in accordance with a broader social man, while still learning and adequate or Target rate of return.
The solidarity fund is a 10 billion investment fund established by the Quebec Federation of Labor in Canada to invest in businesses which contribute to Quebec's economic and social development. RSF social Finance is a non-profit financial institution , (founded in 1936) focus on lending to nonprofit and social Enterprises in the US. Oxfam UK has started an Enterprise Development Program to channel financial investments to social enterprises in 20 developing countries. Alaska Native Corporations are collectively owned entities founded with Native resource revenues, to invest in a range of businesses and development projects; their collective revenues exceed 10 billion per year.
• Sovereign wealth.
These funds are owned by a national government, funded with state revenues (often from resource production); they invest in strategic businesses and / or generate future investment income to fund public pensions and other public programs.
Sovereign wealth has grown rapidly in recent years, and now totals over US$ 5 trillion in Investments. Petroleum producing countries have been most aggressive in creating these funds (to save nonrenewable wealth for future uses), but some non-petroleum countries have established Sovereign funds as well (such as Korea, China and Singapore). The largest fund is Norway's government pension fund, with assets approaching US$ 1 trillion; it single-handedly owns about 2% of All European corporate shares.
• Microcredit.
Microlending is undertaken on a nonprofit or cost-recovery basis, with a focus on small loans to households and small producers (usually in developing countries or poor neighborhoods).
The most famous microcredit institution is the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, owned cooperatively by its Borrowers; it extends small low interest loans (mostly to women) through a participatory loan management system ( in which groups of borrowers collectively determine who receives new loans, and collectively ensure the loans are repaid). Similar systems have been introduced in other poor countries, and in some regions or neighborhoods of rich countries.
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somehow you got that backwards. When people work at a capitalist company then they don't have any incentive. Capital companies try to get as much work out of their workers as possible while paying them as little as possible. But when workers on the company, then they get the full value of their labour. The more they produce, the better they produce, the more money they make. That's why it's possible for an assembly line worker to make $70,000 a year at a socially owned company but not at a capitalist company. At a capitalist company it doesn't matter if you produce $70,000 worth of product or 70 million dollars worth of product. It All Belongs to the owner. You've basically made that money for someone else. statistically speaking, when workers own their own company, they're happier, more creative, more efficient, more productive, they take less sick days, there's less incidence of substance abuse, Etc. https://youtu.be/-VdbFzwe8fQ
Study number 1:
Virginie Perotin's research** which looked at two decades worth of international data, shows that worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses.
"The idea that employees can run their own firms might sound unrealistic to some. This study looks at international data on worker-owned and run businesses in Europe, the US and Latin America and compares them with conventional businesses. It also reviews international statistical studies on the firms’ productivity, survival, investment and responsiveness.
It finds that worker co-operatives represent a serious business alternative and bring significant benefits to their employees and to the economy. There are thousands of worker-run businesses in Europe, employing several hundred thousand people in a broad range of industries, from traditional manufacturing to the creative and high-tech industries.
Because worker co-operatives are owned and run by them, employees in worker-owned co-operatives have far more say in the business, from day-to-day concerns through to major strategic issues.
The largest study comparing the productivity of worker co-operatives with that of conventional businesses finds that in several industries, conventional companies would produce more with their current levels of employment and capital if they behaved like employee-owned firms.
When market conditions change worker cooperatives review wages first and keep employment more stable. In a downturn worker co-operatives drop wages rather than reducing their workforce. When business picks up they are ready to
respond and can make up for lost pay because employees enjoy a share of profit."
The main findings from the analysis and review are:
• Worker co-operatives are larger than conventional businesses and not necessarily less capital intensive.
• Worker co-operatives survive at least as long as other businesses and have more stable employment.
• Worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses, with staff working “better and smarter” and production organised more efficiently.
• Worker co-operatives retain a larger share of their profits than other business models.
• Executive and non-executive pay differentials are much narrower in worker co-operatives than other firms.
** "Virginie Pérotin is Professor of Economics at Leeds University Business School and specialises in the effects of firm ownership and governance on performance, worker co-operatives, employee ownership and profit sharing. Previous academic and research roles include positions at the International Labour Office, the London School of Economics and the Centre d’Etude des Revenus et des Coûts (CERC) in the French Prime Minister’s Office in Paris. Professor Pérotin has also acted as a consultant to the European Commission, World Bank and OECD on issues of profit-sharing, employee ownership and employee involvement schemes."
Here is a link to the research data https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/uploads/attachments/worker_co-op_report.pdf
Study number 2:
This study by The Democracy Collaborative found that in the US, worker cooperatives can increase worker incomes by 70-80%, and that they can grow 2% faster a year than other businesses. This data also showed that worker coops have 9-19% greater levels of productivity, 45% lower turnover rates, and are 30% less likely to fail in the first few years of operation!
https://democracycollaborative.org/content/worker-cooperatives-pathways-scale
Study number 3:
This study of worker cooperatives in Italy, the UK, and France found “positive” relationships with productivity. It also found that worker cooperatives do not become less productive as they get larger. One 1995 study of worker cooperatives in the timber industry in Washington, USA found that “co-ops are more efficient than the principal conventional firms by between 6 and 14 percent”.
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/1995/01/1995_bpeamicro_craig.pdf
Study number 4:
An in-depth study of the Mondragon Corporation released today (5 April 2017) reveals how a large global business thrives because it’s owned by its workers, caps the gap between the highest and lowest paid, and has built an ecosystem around itself.
https://www.uk.coop/newsroom/new-report-highlights-lessons-worlds-largest-worker-co-op
Now you compare that with capitalist Enterprises where where the pay disparity between the top and the bottom is as high as 312 times!
CEOs and shareholders do not Work 312 times harder then the actual workers themselves. These disparities only exist in dictatorial capitalist companies where workers have no control. And that's why in Flint Michigan the workers at the Ford Motor Company plant we're forced to poison their own water supply. It's why they had no choice when production was moved offshore. Those kind of problems do not exist or happen in workplace democracies. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/16/ceo-versus-worker-wage-american-companies-pay-gap-study-2018
▪︎ Worldwide, cooperatives represent well over $3 trillion in turnover, 12.6 million in employment, and over a billion people in total membership.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/2014/coopsegm/grace.pdf
▪︎ In the United States the cooperative sector represents over $500 billion in revenues and employs about two million people
http://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/sites/all/REIC_FINAL.pdf
1. For example, these assembly line workers make $65,000 a year for putting bread into a bag! https://youtu.be/-VdbFzwe8fQ
2. People feel United and actually look forward to going to work! That makes them more creative and productive. https://youtu.be/oH81zuMf_Co
3. Worker cooperatives are more productive than normal companies https://www.thenation.com/article/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/
4. More resilience, productivity, and equality. https://lindsayadvocate.ca/worker-cooperatives-a-path-to-equality/
5. Democratic workplaces are far superior to capitalist corporations!
https://cooperativesfirst.com/blog/2017/09/11/2017911how-co-operatives-are-better-than-corporations/
6. People have more money, people are happier, people are more productive and more creative, and they feel more connected to their communities and environment. https://youtu.be/em9YQzDTReo
7. The Italian Region Where Co-ops Produce a Third of Its GDP https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members/
8. pandemic crash shows worker cooperatives are more resilient than traditional businesses. Worker co-ops are a more sustainable form of business, sharing benefits in the good times and burdens in the hard times.
https://truthout.org/articles/pandemic-crash-shows-worker-co-ops-are-more-resilient-than-traditional-business/
9. Cooperatives power almost 60% of the United States land mass https://www.electric.coop/electric-cooperative-fact-sheet/
10. "The 29,284 cooperative firms operating in the US generate over 2 million jobs and create more than $74 billion in wages annually according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, with support from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development. They represent 1% of USA Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for more than $654 billion in revenue. These cooperative businesses contribute with $133.5 billion in income and $3 trillion in assets, and provide products and services across the country in every sector of the economy."
"US cooperatives’ contribution to the national and local economies can be measured in both financial and non financial ways. They keep profits local, pay local taxes to help support community services, take part in community improvement programs and provide services for a large numbrer of people in the country regardless of their income levels or geographic location."
Key points to highlight about American cooperatives:
• There are 120 million cooperative members.
• 92 million U.S. consumers are member owners of, and receive all or part of their financial services from the nation’s nearly 8,200 credit unions.
• In the United States, more than 1.2 million families of all income levels live in homes owned and operated through cooperative associations.
• Farmer co-ops provide over 250,000 jobs, with a total payroll in excess of $8 billion.
• More than 50 million Americans are served by insurance companies owned by or closely affiliated with cooperatives.
• More than 20 cooperatives have annual sales in excess of $1 billion, including well known names like Land O’ Lakes, Inc., Cabot Creamery, Ocean Spray and ACE Hardware.
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@chrisvouzoukos389 , you didn't listen to the debate? Richard Wolff has started several successful businesses. He's extremely prolific.
There are hundreds of thousands of democratic workplaces in the United States and around the world. Bottom up, Democratic non-hierarchical systems work incredibly well. There's no shortage of hard empirical data. We know exactly how well they compare to capitalist Enterprises.
Study number 1:
Virginie Perotin's research** which looked at two decades worth of international data, shows that worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses.
"The idea that employees can run their own firms might sound unrealistic to some. This study looks at international data on worker-owned and run businesses in Europe, the US and Latin America and compares them with conventional businesses. It also reviews international statistical studies on the firms’ productivity, survival, investment and responsiveness.
It finds that worker co-operatives represent a serious business alternative and bring significant benefits to their employees and to the economy. There are thousands of worker-run businesses in Europe, employing several hundred thousand people in a broad range of industries, from traditional manufacturing to the creative and high-tech industries.
Because worker co-operatives are owned and run by them, employees in worker-owned co-operatives have far more say in the business, from day-to-day concerns through to major strategic issues.
The largest study comparing the productivity of worker co-operatives with that of conventional businesses finds that in several industries, conventional companies would produce more with their current levels of employment and capital if they behaved like employee-owned firms.
When market conditions change worker cooperatives review wages first and keep employment more stable. In a downturn worker co-operatives drop wages rather than reducing their workforce. When business picks up they are ready to
respond and can make up for lost pay because employees enjoy a share of profit."
The main findings from the analysis and review are:
• Worker co-operatives are larger than conventional businesses and not necessarily less capital intensive.
• Worker co-operatives survive at least as long as other businesses and have more stable employment.
• Worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses, with staff working “better and smarter” and production organised more efficiently.
• Worker co-operatives retain a larger share of their profits than other business models.
• Executive and non-executive pay differentials are much narrower in worker co-operatives than other firms.
** "Virginie Pérotin is Professor of Economics at Leeds University Business School and specialises in the effects of firm ownership and governance on performance, worker co-operatives, employee ownership and profit sharing. Previous academic and research roles include positions at the International Labour Office, the London School of Economics and the Centre d’Etude des Revenus et des Coûts (CERC) in the French Prime Minister’s Office in Paris. Professor Pérotin has also acted as a consultant to the European Commission, World Bank and OECD on issues of profit-sharing, employee ownership and employee involvement schemes."
Here is a link to the research data https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/uploads/attachments/worker_co-op_report.pdf
Study number 2:
This study by The Democracy Collaborative found that in the US, worker cooperatives can increase worker incomes by 70-80%, and that they can grow 2% faster a year than other businesses. This data also showed that worker coops have 9-19% greater levels of productivity, 45% lower turnover rates, and are 30% less likely to fail in the first few years of operation!
https://democracycollaborative.org/content/worker-cooperatives-pathways-scale
Study number 3:
This study of worker cooperatives in Italy, the UK, and France found “positive” relationships with productivity. It also found that worker cooperatives do not become less productive as they get larger. One 1995 study of worker cooperatives in the timber industry in Washington, USA found that “co-ops are more efficient than the principal conventional firms by between 6 and 14 percent”.
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/1995/01/1995_bpeamicro_craig.pdf
Study number 4:
An in-depth study of the Mondragon Corporation released today (5 April 2017) reveals how a large global business thrives because it’s owned by its workers, caps the gap between the highest and lowest paid, and has built an ecosystem around itself.
https://www.uk.coop/newsroom/new-report-highlights-lessons-worlds-largest-worker-co-op
Now you compare that with capitalist Enterprises where where the pay disparity between the top and the bottom is as high as 312 times!
CEOs and shareholders do not Work 312 times harder then the actual workers themselves. These disparities only exist in dictatorial capitalist companies where workers have no control. And that's why in Flint Michigan the workers at the Ford Motor Company plant we're forced to poison their own water supply. It's why they had no choice when production was moved offshore. Those kind of problems do not exist or happen in workplace democracies. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/16/ceo-versus-worker-wage-american-companies-pay-gap-study-2018
▪︎ Worldwide, cooperatives represent well over $3 trillion in turnover, 12.6 million in employment, and over a billion people in total membership.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/2014/coopsegm/grace.pdf
▪︎ In the United States the cooperative sector represents over $500 billion in revenues and employs about two million people
http://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/sites/all/REIC_FINAL.pdf
1. For example, these assembly line workers make $65,000 a year for putting bread into a bag! https://youtu.be/-VdbFzwe8fQ
2. People feel United and actually look forward to going to work! That makes them more creative and productive. https://youtu.be/oH81zuMf_Co
3. Worker cooperatives are more productive than normal companies https://www.thenation.com/article/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/
4. More resilience, productivity, and equality. https://lindsayadvocate.ca/worker-cooperatives-a-path-to-equality/
5. Democratic workplaces are far superior to capitalist corporations!
https://cooperativesfirst.com/blog/2017/09/11/2017911how-co-operatives-are-better-than-corporations/
6. People have more money, people are happier, people are more productive and more creative, and they feel more connected to their communities and environment. https://youtu.be/em9YQzDTReo
7. The Italian Region Where Co-ops Produce a Third of Its GDP https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members/
8. pandemic crash shows worker cooperatives are more resilient than traditional businesses. Worker co-ops are a more sustainable form of business, sharing benefits in the good times and burdens in the hard times.
https://truthout.org/articles/pandemic-crash-shows-worker-co-ops-are-more-resilient-than-traditional-business/
9. Cooperatives power almost 60% of the United States land mass https://www.electric.coop/electric-cooperative-fact-sheet/
10. "The 29,284 cooperative firms operating in the US generate over 2 million jobs and create more than $74 billion in wages annually according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, with support from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development. They represent 1% of USA Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for more than $654 billion in revenue. These cooperative businesses contribute with $133.5 billion in income and $3 trillion in assets, and provide products and services across the country in every sector of the economy."
"US cooperatives’ contribution to the national and local economies can be measured in both financial and non financial ways. They keep profits local, pay local taxes to help support community services, take part in community improvement programs and provide services for a large numbrer of people in the country regardless of their income levels or geographic location."
Key points to highlight about American cooperatives:
• There are 120 million cooperative members.
• 92 million U.S. consumers are member owners of, and receive all or part of their financial services from the nation’s nearly 8,200 credit unions.
• More than 900 electric cooperatives deliver electricity in the United States to 42 million people in 47 states. That equates to 12 percent of the nation’s population.
• In the United States, more than 1.2 million families of all income levels live in homes owned and operated through cooperative associations.
• Farmer co-ops provide over 250,000 jobs, with a total payroll in excess of $8 billion.
• More than 50 million Americans are served by insurance companies owned by or closely affiliated with cooperatives.
• More than 20 cooperatives have annual sales in excess of $1 billion, including well known names like Land O’ Lakes, Inc., Cabot Creamery, Ocean Spray and ACE Hardware.
US data on Cooperatives
• 29,284 cooperative firms
•654 billion plus in revenue.
• $133.5 billion in income.
• $3 trillion in assets.
• 2 million plus jobs.
• 120 million members.
https://www.aciamericas.coop/Economic-impact-of-the-United
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@mikeg.8904 , yes, if you have no other choice other than to work for someone else in order to survive, then you'll have to make the products that they tell you to make. Everything you make belongs to your employer.
You see, it's easy for rich people to buy factories, railroads, electric companies, Etc. But most workers live from check to check. They can't afford to buy those things. Therefore they have to work for other people. however, if workers can get together as a group, that it makes it easier for them to purchase expensive equipment, warehouses, tools, Etc.
For example, there's a Cooperative in Spain where the workers now own their own Hospital, high-tech Research Laboratories, University, Etc. the workers are independent because they don't have to work for someone else. They get the full value of their labour. they don't need to sell their labour for a fraction of what it's worth to someone like Jeff Bezos so that he can become extremely rich.
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@michelem7786 , well first of all to say that communism and socialism are the most course of ideologies , that's simply not true. capitalist Nations have been far more coercive and responsible for far more deaths than communism, fascism, and socialism combined.
Capitalism killed 1.8 billion + people, that's not too far off the mark--especially if we include the deaths resulting from the centrally regulated state-capitalist economies of the Leninist states out there (often fraudulently referred to as "socialist" or "communist"). It looks more like 1,86 billion--and that's not including all the work-related deaths worldwide, which easily exceed many of the wars we have suffered.
Now, of course, the estimated casualty numbers depend on how far back in history we go (we can go back as far as the rise of colonial capitalism--also called mercantilism--during the 1500s and 1600s. And, sadly, the further back we go, the harder it is to find credible data).
But we can try by looking at official estimates of casualties of key events over the decades and centuries. So here goes:
United States Imperialism:
Hurricane Katrina (deliberate faulty construction) 1,836
NATO Intervention in Libya 2011 15,000
Tamils killed by US backed Sri Lankan Gov. 30,000
US Revolutionary War 35,700 (If Russa removes a Monarch its bad right?)
Spanish-American War 100,000
US Made Famine in Bangladesh 1974 100,000
NATO Intervention in Libya 100,000
Guatemala 300,000
US Bombing of Yugoslavia 300,000
Iraq (US Selling Poison Gas to Saddam) 400,000
Iraq (Desert Storm) 500,000
US Bombing Iraq Water Supply in 1991 500,000
Invasion of the Philippines 650,000
US Civil War 700,000
US Concentration Camps of Germans 1,000,000
US imposed sanctions on Iraq 1,000,000
Afghanistan (War on Terrorism) 1,200,000
US Backed Dictator General Suharto 1,200,000
Iraq (War on Terrorism) 1,300,000
1898 American War vs Philippine 3,000,000
US Intervention in the Congo 5,000,000
US Aggression on Latin America 6,000,000
Vietnam War* (including Cambodia & Laos) 10,000,000
Korean War* 10,000,000
Native American Genocide 114,000,000
African Slave Trade 150,000,000
* both wars caused by the us
Japanese Imperialism:
Japanese Occupation of East Timor 70,000
Japanese Bombing of China 71,105
Japanese Massacre of Singapore 100,000
Japanese Germ Warfare in China 200,000
Japanese Democides 5,964,000
British Imperialism:
Second Boer War 75,000
Irish Potato Famine 1,500,000
The Bengal Famine of 1943 10,000,000
British Occupation of India 20,000,000
Famine in Held British India 30,000,000
Misc. nations:
Massacre of the Paris Commune 20,000
Dutch East Indies 25,000
Somali Child Famine Deaths 29,000
228 Massacre 30,000
French Madagascar 80,000
Indonesian Anti-Communist Purges 1965-1966 1,000,000
Indonesian East Timor invasion 1975 5,000,000
Philippine Insurrection 220,000
Franco Regime 300,000
Benito Mussolini regime 300,000
Rebelling Shia Killed by Saddam 300,000
Nanking Massacre 300,000
Spanish Civil War 400,000
Mussolini’s Ethiopia 700,000
Palestinians Killed by Israel 1947-2002 826,626
Nigerian Civil War 1,000,000
Somalia 1,000,000
Iraq-Iran War 1,000,000
Rawandan Genocide 1,000,000
Belgian Congo Colonization 10,000,000
Tsarist Russia (1800s only) 1,066,000
First Indochina 1946-1954 1,750,000
Cambodia Khmer Rouge 2,035,000
Cambodia Pol Pot 3,200,000
South African Apartheid 3,500,000
Congo 1886-1908 8,000,000
Nazi Holocaust 12,000,000
Eastern Europe/COMECON/Warsaw Pact 1946-1991 1,200,000
Soviet-era Capitalism (excluding Stalin era) 11,000,000
Soviet Gulag/concentration/POW camps 2,500,000
Post-Soviet Capitalism in Russia 1,500,000
Stalinist Famine of 1932-33 7,000,000
Stalinist Famine of 1947-39 7,000,000
Stalinist purges-persecution 1928-53 1,200,000
Mao Ze Dong "Great Leap" 1958-63 20,000,000
Post-1949 China deaths (excluding Great Leap) 5,000,000
Chiang Kai Shek regime (China) 7,000,000
Pol Pot regime (Cambodia) 3,000,000
World War One 16,500,000
World War Two 72,000,000
General Disasters by Capitalism:
Hamburg Cholera Outbreak 1892 10,000
Union Carbide Bophal Disaster 15,000
Industrial Revolution Kids & Adults USA 100,000
Industrial Revolution Kids & Adults Global 212,000,000
Chetnik Collaboration & Genocide 100,000
Herero and Namaqua Genocide 110,000
Burma-Siam Railroad Construction 116,000
Albanian Genocide 270,000
Fascist Independent State of Croatia 900,000
Armenian Genocide 1,500,000
Great Depression (America and Europe) 12,000,000
Children Killed by Preventable Diseases Since 9/11 208,000,000
Children Killed by Hunger 2001-2008 9/11 235,000,000
Children Died from Hunger 2009 5,256,000
Children Died from Hunger 2010 6,000,000
Children Killed by Hunger during the 1990s 100,000,000
Capitalist Policy in India 1947 – 1990 120,000,000
Ciggarette Related Deaths Worldwide (1960 – 2011) 306,000,000
IMF-related casualties since 1950 140,000,000
https://i.redd.it/jz1kv95kuh011.gif
https://theconversation.com/colonialism-was-a-disaster-and-the-facts-prove-it-84496
https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-colonial-european-regimes/melissa-sartore
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/may/13/features11.g22
https://chomsky.info/199910__/
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/stalin.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
http://www.flashpoints.info/iss.../Genocide/Genocide_htm.htm
http://tinyurl.com/jqgk9kp
http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm#America
http://www.orwelltoday.com/redriding.shtml
http://www.whale.to/b/mullins41.html
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/State_capitalism
http://www.scribd.com/.../American-Corporations-and-Hitler
http://www.iahushua.com/WOI/us_nazis.htm
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t
https://prezi.com/7mdtynonwovn/famous-murders-murderers-of-the-industrial-revolution/
https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain-1700-to-1900/industrial-revolution/diseases-in-industrial-cities-in-the-industrial-revolution/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25780760
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@michelem7786 , third, " just do it" is not an argument. The argument is that worker-owned and Community owned companies and factories are better for workers and the economy. The argument is not whether a person is legally entitled to start a business. Of course they are, either individually or collectively. The problem is, most people are not in a position to just do it. There are many barriers. most people are in an extreme state of dependency. They live from Check to Check and have huge amounts of debt. Something like 90% of the American population can no longer afford a family on a single income. They can't even afford a $400 emergency. people are going bankrupt all the time just from an unexpected medical bill or other emergency. So no, people just can't do it. Hard enough for people in debt to be able to borrow money for something such as a home or a car, which gives the bank something to repossess if payments are not made. you think a bank is going to lend money to someone in debt for the purpose of starting something as risky as a business in this precarious economic environment?
if people were not in the state of dependency, capitalism would cease to exist. capitalist companies are dependant upon people not being able to extricate themselves from their states of dependency.
for example, there's a socially on bread factory in the United States were assembly line workers make between 65 and $70,000 per year. that's because the workers own the product of their labour. however, when workers do not own the product of their labour, it doesn't matter how much they produce. It doesn't matter if they produce $70,000 worth of product or 70 million dollars worth of product. It All Belongs to someone else. workers at companies such as Amazon and Walmart produce far more wealth with their labour, but they get paid wages are so low they can barely pay their bills. So obviously if workers had the choice of getting the full value of their labour, they're not going to go work at a company such as Walmart or Amazon.
capitalist companies require desperate workers. That's why capitalism didn't exist prior to the enclosure movement. That's why the conversion to capitalism was extremely violent and bloody. people fought against the conversion to capitalism because back then everyone recognized wage slavery to be another form of slavery, not much better than chattel slavery and in some cases even worse. that's not my opinion, that's a matter of public record.
and what do you think is going to be better for the economy? A worker that makes $70,000 a year or a worker making minimum wage at a company such as Walmart or Amazon?
here's some labour history:
"if you’re, say, a journeyman, a craftsman, and you sell your product, you’re selling what you produced. If you’re a wage earner, you’re selling yourself, which is deeply offensive. They condemned what they called the new spirit of the age: gain wealth, forgetting all but self."
"We might just consider the matter of wage labor. It’s pretty hard to remember maybe, but if you go back to the early industrial revolutions, the late 19th century, wage labor was considered essentially the same as slavery. The only difference was that it was supposed to be temporary. That was a slogan of the Republican party: opposition to wage slavery. Why should some people give orders and others take them? That’s essentially the relation of a master and a slave, even if it could be temporary.
If you look back at the labor movement in the late 19th century, you see it had a rich array of worker-owned, worker-directed media: worker-written newspapers all over the place, and many of them by women—the so-called “factory girls” in textile plants. Attack on wage labor was constant. The slogan was, “Those who work in the mills should own them.” They opposed the degradation and undermining of culture that was part of the forced industrialization of the society. They began to link up with the radical agrarian movement. It was mostly still an agrarian society, the farmers groups that wanted to get rid of the northeastern bankers and merchants and run their own affairs. It was a really radical democratic moment. There were worker-run cities, like Homestead, Pennsylvania, a main industrial center. A lot of that was destroyed by force, but I again think it’s just below the surface, can rise easily again."
~ Noam Chomsky
"The capitalist revolution instituted a crucial change from price to wage. When the producer sold his product for a price, Ware writes, “he retained his person. But when he came to sell his labor, he sold himself,” and lost his dignity as a person as he became a slave — a “wage slave,” the term commonly used. Wage labor was considered similar to chattel slavery, though differing in that it was temporary — in theory. That understanding was so widespread that it became a slogan of the Republican Party, advocated by its leading figure, Abraham Lincoln."
What is the difference between a wage slave and a chattel slave?
The chattel slave is sold once and for all; the wage slave must sell himself daily and hourly.
"The chattel slave is the property of one master, and is assured an existence, however miserable it may be, because of the master’s interest. The individual wage slave, property as it were of the entire capitalist class which buys his labor only when someone has need of it, has no secure existence. This existence is assured only to the class as a whole.
The chattel slave is outside competition; the wage slave is in it and experiences all its vagaries."
"As long as he owns your tools (the capitalist) he owns your job, and if he owns your job he is the master of your fate. You are in no sense a free man. You are subject to his interest and to his will. He decides whether you shall work or not. Therefore, he decides whether you shall live or die. And in that humiliating position any one who tries to persuade you that you are a free man is guilty of insulting your intelligence."
when you work as an employee, the boss tells you when you work, how hard you have to work, Etc. they can cut your wages, your working hours, they can even tell you when and how long you get to go to the washroom.
"There are serious barriers to overcome in the struggle for justice, freedom, and dignity, even beyond the bitter class war conducted ceaselessly by the highly class-conscious business world with the “indispensable support” of the governments they largely control. Ware discusses some of these insidious threats as they were understood by working people. He reports the thinking of skilled workers in New York 170 years ago, who repeated the common view that a daily wage is a form of slavery and warned perceptively that a day might come when wage slaves “will so far forget what is due to manhood as to glory in a system forced on them by their necessity and in opposition to their feelings of independence and self-respect.” They hoped that that day would be “far distant.” Today, signs of it are common, but demands for independence, self-respect, personal dignity, and control of one’s own work and life, like Marx’s old mole, continue to burrow not far from the surface, ready to reappear when awakened by circumstances and militant activism."
"Mass public education is one of the great achievements of American society. It has had many dimensions. One purpose was to prepare independent farmers for life as wage laborers who would tolerate what they regarded as virtual slavery."
"The school, church, TV, & press are used to foster the ideology of the ruling class & indoctrinate the worker into accepting their system as the most natural permanent form of society." -- Rob Sewell
"As I mentioned, public mass education was a major achievement, in which the US was a pioneer. But it had complex characteristics, rooted in the sharp class conflicts of the day. One goal was to induce farmers to give up their independence and submit themselves to industrial discipline and accept what they regarded as wage slavery. That did not pass without notice. Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that political leaders of his day were calling for popular education. He concluded that their motivation was fear. The country was filling up with millions of voters and the Masters realized that one had to therefore “educate them, to keep them from (our) throats.”"
Adam Smith:
"People read snippets of Adam Smith, the few phrases they teach in school. Everybody reads the first paragraph of The Wealth of Nations where he talks about how wonderful the division of labor is. But not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be. And therefore in any civilized society the government is going to have to take some measures to prevent division of labor from proceeding to its limits."
• Noam Chomsky (1995) Class Warfare, p. 19-23.
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@michelem7786 , fourth, will you see that no one wants to do it, that is not correct. There are hundreds of thousands of democratic workplaces in the United States and around the world. And because they have existed for such a long time, we know exactly how well they compare to capitalist Enterprises. Statistically speaking, not only are these companies more durable, productive, the workers are happier, more creative, more efficient, take less sick days, there's listen to this of mental illness, suicide, depression, Etc. there is no shortage of hard empirical data to look at.
Study number 1:
Virginie Perotin's research** which looked at two decades worth of international data, shows that worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses.
"The idea that employees can run their own firms might sound unrealistic to some. This study looks at international data on worker-owned and run businesses in Europe, the US and Latin America and compares them with conventional businesses. It also reviews international statistical studies on the firms’ productivity, survival, investment and responsiveness.
It finds that worker co-operatives represent a serious business alternative and bring significant benefits to their employees and to the economy. There are thousands of worker-run businesses in Europe, employing several hundred thousand people in a broad range of industries, from traditional manufacturing to the creative and high-tech industries.
Because worker co-operatives are owned and run by them, employees in worker-owned co-operatives have far more say in the business, from day-to-day concerns through to major strategic issues.
The largest study comparing the productivity of worker co-operatives with that of conventional businesses finds that in several industries, conventional companies would produce more with their current levels of employment and capital if they behaved like employee-owned firms.
When market conditions change worker cooperatives review wages first and keep employment more stable. In a downturn worker co-operatives drop wages rather than reducing their workforce. When business picks up they are ready to
respond and can make up for lost pay because employees enjoy a share of profit."
The main findings from the analysis and review are:
• Worker co-operatives are larger than conventional businesses and not necessarily less capital intensive.
• Worker co-operatives survive at least as long as other businesses and have more stable employment.
• Worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses, with staff working “better and smarter” and production organised more efficiently.
• Worker co-operatives retain a larger share of their profits than other business models.
• Executive and non-executive pay differentials are much narrower in worker co-operatives than other firms.
** "Virginie Pérotin is Professor of Economics at Leeds University Business School and specialises in the effects of firm ownership and governance on performance, worker co-operatives, employee ownership and profit sharing. Previous academic and research roles include positions at the International Labour Office, the London School of Economics and the Centre d’Etude des Revenus et des Coûts (CERC) in the French Prime Minister’s Office in Paris. Professor Pérotin has also acted as a consultant to the European Commission, World Bank and OECD on issues of profit-sharing, employee ownership and employee involvement schemes."
Here is a link to the research data https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/uploads/attachments/worker_co-op_report.pdf
Study number 2:
This study by The Democracy Collaborative found that in the US, worker cooperatives can increase worker incomes by 70-80%, and that they can grow 2% faster a year than other businesses. This data also showed that worker coops have 9-19% greater levels of productivity, 45% lower turnover rates, and are 30% less likely to fail in the first few years of operation!
https://democracycollaborative.org/content/worker-cooperatives-pathways-scale
Study number 3:
This study of worker cooperatives in Italy, the UK, and France found “positive” relationships with productivity. It also found that worker cooperatives do not become less productive as they get larger. One 1995 study of worker cooperatives in the timber industry in Washington, USA found that “co-ops are more efficient than the principal conventional firms by between 6 and 14 percent”.
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/1995/01/1995_bpeamicro_craig.pdf
Study number 4:
An in-depth study of the Mondragon Corporation released today (5 April 2017) reveals how a large global business thrives because it’s owned by its workers, caps the gap between the highest and lowest paid, and has built an ecosystem around itself.
https://www.uk.coop/newsroom/new-report-highlights-lessons-worlds-largest-worker-co-op
Now you compare that with capitalist Enterprises where where the pay disparity between the top and the bottom is as high as 312 times!
CEOs and shareholders do not Work 312 times harder then the actual workers themselves. These disparities only exist in dictatorial capitalist companies where workers have no control. And that's why in Flint Michigan the workers at the Ford Motor Company plant we're forced to poison their own water supply. It's why they had no choice when production was moved offshore. Those kind of problems do not exist or happen in workplace democracies. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/16/ceo-versus-worker-wage-american-companies-pay-gap-study-2018
▪︎ Worldwide, cooperatives represent well over $3 trillion in turnover, 12.6 million in employment, and over a billion people in total membership.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/2014/coopsegm/grace.pdf
▪︎ In the United States the cooperative sector represents over $500 billion in revenues and employs about two million people
http://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/sites/all/REIC_FINAL.pdf
1. For example, these assembly line workers make $65,000 a year for putting bread into a bag! https://youtu.be/-VdbFzwe8fQ
2. People feel United and actually look forward to going to work! That makes them more creative and productive. https://youtu.be/oH81zuMf_Co
3. Worker cooperatives are more productive than normal companies https://www.thenation.com/article/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/
4. More resilience, productivity, and equality. https://lindsayadvocate.ca/worker-cooperatives-a-path-to-equality/
5. Democratic workplaces are far superior to capitalist corporations!
https://cooperativesfirst.com/blog/2017/09/11/2017911how-co-operatives-are-better-than-corporations/
6. People have more money, people are happier, people are more productive and more creative, and they feel more connected to their communities and environment. https://youtu.be/em9YQzDTReo
7. The Italian Region Where Co-ops Produce a Third of Its GDP https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2016/07/05/the-italian-place-where-co-ops-drive-the-economy-and-most-people-are-members/
8. pandemic crash shows worker cooperatives are more resilient than traditional businesses. Worker co-ops are a more sustainable form of business, sharing benefits in the good times and burdens in the hard times.
https://truthout.org/articles/pandemic-crash-shows-worker-co-ops-are-more-resilient-than-traditional-business/
9. Cooperatives power almost 60% of the United States land mass https://www.electric.coop/electric-cooperative-fact-sheet/
10. "The 29,284 cooperative firms operating in the US generate over 2 million jobs and create more than $74 billion in wages annually according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, with support from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development. They represent 1% of USA Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for more than $654 billion in revenue. These cooperative businesses contribute with $133.5 billion in income and $3 trillion in assets, and provide products and services across the country in every sector of the economy."
"US cooperatives’ contribution to the national and local economies can be measured in both financial and non financial ways. They keep profits local, pay local taxes to help support community services, take part in community improvement programs and provide services for a large numbrer of people in the country regardless of their income levels or geographic location."
Key points to highlight about American cooperatives:
• There are 120 million cooperative members.
• 92 million U.S. consumers are member owners of, and receive all or part of their financial services from the nation’s nearly 8,200 credit unions.
• More than 900 electric cooperatives deliver electricity in the United States to 42 million people in 47 states. That equates to 12 percent of the nation’s population.
• In the United States, more than 1.2 million families of all income levels live in homes owned and operated through cooperative associations.
• Farmer co-ops provide over 250,000 jobs, with a total payroll in excess of $8 billion.
• More than 50 million Americans are served by insurance companies owned by or closely affiliated with cooperatives.
• More than 20 cooperatives have annual sales in excess of $1 billion, including well known names like Land O’ Lakes, Inc., Cabot Creamery, Ocean Spray and ACE Hardware.
US data on Cooperatives
• 29,284 cooperative firms
•654 billion plus in revenue.
• $133.5 billion in income.
• $3 trillion in assets.
• 2 million plus jobs.
• 120 million members.
https://www.aciamericas.coop/Economic-impact-of-the-United
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@michelem7786 , seventh, you wanted me to give you one example other than Mondragon? There are simply too many examples to even mention. We're talking hundreds of thousands of democratic workplaces. There are also many different types of institutional forms of public and social ownership. For example,
>>> Forms of social production:
• State-owned Enterprises (SOEs)
corporations are owned directly by a government (National or sub-national), and operate according to a mandate that may include social criteria.
In advanced capitalist countries many SOEs have been privatized under neoliberalism. But many still operate successfully (in diverse Industries including manufacturing, Communications, Transportation, utilities, and resources), accounting for up to 5% of total GDP in some OCED countries. Examples of successful wholly or partially -owned SOEs include Volkswagen (Germany), State Oil (Norway), EDF group (France), and Metsahalltus (Finland). In many developing and former communist countries (including China, Brazil, Russia and Vietnam) SOEs are much more important.
• producer cooperatives.
A producer Co-operative is owned collectively and equally by the people who work in it, and is usually governed according to "one person, one vote."
Cooperatives are one of the most common forms of nonprofit Enterprises. There are hundreds of thousands of cooperatives in the world; the United Nations estimates that half the world's population are members or customers of a Cooperative. Examples of successful producer cooperatives include Fonterra (New Zealand's largest Dairy producer), the ReWe Group (a major tourism company in Germany), Huawei (a giant Chinese electronics manufacturer, 99% owned by its workers), and Japan's Farm sector where over 90% of the Farmers belong to cooperatives). Strong networks of producer cooperatives are the dominant economic structure in Spain's Mondragon region and Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.
• Consumer Cooperatives.
A consumer Cooperative is owned collectively and equally by the people who buy its products, and is usually governed according to "one person, one vote."
Many retail cooperatives are formed to help consumers obtain lower prices and challenge the market power of private retailers. In Denmark over one-third of all retail sales are conducted through cooperatives. The E.Leclerc Cooperative operates over 500 supermarkets in France. Canada's Mountain Equipment Co-op runs the country's largest retail Network for outdoor recreation products.
• Recovered companies.
Workers in a bankrupt company effectively expropriate the Enterprise and attempt to keep it in business.
In the years after the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina, over 200 bankrupt factories were taken over by their workers, who continue to operate them (with some government support for refinancing). 2013 law in Bolivia gives workers the explicit legal authority to take over filled firms.
• Community Trusts.
A Community Trust is a non-profit Corporation, usually exempt from normal business taxes, created to purchase and development land, housing, and other Community Asset.
There are over 250 Community Land Trust operating in the US, with the explicit mission to undertake affordable housing develop, Environmental Conservation, and local job creation on lands that they own. Governance is based on a shared model that includes lessees and elected local representatives.
• Benefit corporations.
A benefit Corporation is owned by private shareholders, but obliged by its Charter to pursue social and environmental goals in addition to profit.
"B Lab" is an association which publishes an annual Global ranking of successful benefit corporations. Recent recognized firms include Echele! a tu casa (a benefit corporation based in Mexico City which develops low-cost housing for residents of poor neighborhoods), and Give Something Back (a major office supply company in California with a Community Development mandate).
• Community and nonprofit Enterprises.
Jobs in especially hard-hit regions and communities can be created by nonprofit Community Development agencies, drawing on local resources including training, housing and alternative Finance.
Community Economic Development (CED) is an "up by the bootstraps" effort to mobilize local resources that would otherwise idle, providing local Services, developing infrastructure, and providing unemployed people with job experience and training. Decentralized CED initiatives can be important in many developing economies, and in poor or remote regions of developed countries. Some entire communities have been founded and sustained on Cooperative principles in many countries.
>>>> Forms of socialized Finance:
• public banks.
Public banks are owned by national or sub-national levels of government; they take deposits, issue loans ( create credit), and facilitate financial transactions.
Public banking is widespread in many parts of the world. Countries in which publicly- owned banks play a major role include Japan (the JapanPost Bank is the largest Savings Bank in the world), Germany (with two parallel networks of public Banks: Sparkassen and Landesbanken), and China ( where are the state-owned banking system helped China completely avoid the 2008 - 09 World recession).
• Credit unions and Cooperative Banks.
Credit unions and other Cooperative banks are owned by their members, and govern according to "one person, one vote."
there are at least 60,000 credit unions and Cooperative banks in the world, with trillions of dollars in Combined assets; they are the most developed and Powerful form of cooperative enterprise. Large credit unions are important Financial players in many countries, including: Netherlands (the huge Rabobank has 60,000 employees and 750 billion in assets), and France (three major cooperative bank federations account for almost half of all consumer banking), Sweden (the JAK Bank makes loans without charging interest at all), and Canada (the Desjardins credit union movement is the largest financial institution in Quebec).
• Investment and development Banks.
Publicly-owned investment Banks specialize in targeted lending and investing in key companies (including private companies)with strategic economic importance.
State-owned investment or development Banks play an important role in sector development policy and many countries, including France, the Nordic countries, Japan, and Brazil. Singapore's Temasek Holdings was established to foster broad economic and industrial development there; it partially owns over 50 companies, and is consistently profitable.
• Social investment funds and Foundations.
These Financial funds are mandated to make investments in various firms or social Enterprises, in accordance with a broader social man, while still learning and adequate or Target rate of return.
The solidarity fund is a 10 billion investment fund established by the Quebec Federation of Labor in Canada to invest in businesses which contribute to Quebec's economic and social development. RSF social Finance is a non-profit financial institution , (founded in 1936) focus on lending to nonprofit and social Enterprises in the US. Oxfam UK has started an Enterprise Development Program to channel financial investments to social enterprises in 20 developing countries. Alaska Native Corporations are collectively owned entities founded with Native resource revenues, to invest in a range of businesses and development projects; their collective revenues exceed 10 billion per year.
• Sovereign wealth.
These funds are owned by a national government, funded with state revenues (often from resource production); they invest in strategic businesses and / or generate future investment income to fund public pensions and other public programs.
Sovereign wealth has grown rapidly in recent years, and now totals over US$ 5 trillion in Investments. Petroleum producing countries have been most aggressive in creating these funds (to save nonrenewable wealth for future uses), but some non-petroleum countries have established Sovereign funds as well (such as Korea, China and Singapore). The largest fund is Norway's government pension fund, with assets approaching US$ 1 trillion; it single-handedly owns about 2% of All European corporate shares.
• Microcredit.
Microlending is undertaken on a nonprofit or cost-recovery basis, with a focus on small loans to households and small producers (usually in developing countries or poor neighborhoods).
The most famous microcredit institution is the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, owned cooperatively by its Borrowers; it extends small low interest loans (mostly to women) through a participatory loan management system ( in which groups of borrowers collectively determine who receives new loans, and collectively ensure the loans are repaid). Similar systems have been introduced in other poor countries, and in some regions or neighborhoods of rich countries.
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