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Comment by nateberkopec | Hacker News Reader

My local co-op has committed to providing 100% of sunny daytime electricity with solar by 2022 (35 megawatts): http://kitcarson.com/electric/100-daytime-solar-energy-by-20...

It's really interesting that the push is coming from co-ops. Many people in my town don't seem to understand how important and incredible our local co-op is. They mostly complain about the quality of service (there's more downtime than you would get from a traditional utility, for sure) but don't think about the alternative is a utility that belches coal smoke and outsources customer service to Bangladesh.

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>(there's more downtime than you would get from a traditional utility, for sure)

We have an electric coop (Greystone Power), and we have no noticeable additional downtime vs people a few miles down the road who have Georgia Power.

Given that my rates are lower to start with, and I tend to get refunds back each year, I see no advantages to using a traditional power company.

Co-ops are amazing. If only every business could be a coop

We'd most likely be stuck in the '40s, and the world would have about 40-80x as many people living in abject poverty. Co-ops work when everyone involved is a true stakeholder, I am not so much a stakeholder in my bank, nor in Intel, nor ASUS, but I still benefit from my transactions with them.

You can still do business with a coop you're not a member of.

I do not understand your comment. A coop is simply an employee-owned company (usually with more even distribution of ownership than many nominally employee-owned companies). You do not need to work for a coop to do business with them

> I do not understand your comment.

A world of co-ops is close enough to anarcho-syndicalism that many Americans get an allergic reaction.

a defect of the american mind doesn't speak to the validity of the concept as a whole.

besides, we're talking about the society which is just fine with anarcho-corporatism...

Where did the anarcho- terms come from? I don’t remember seeing them in my academic Econ days.

Not the farmers who are in producer coops

Your talking about the original coops some worker coops the OP is talking about either a producer or a consumer coop.

I suspect this is a producer or consumer coop and those are fairly popular in the states many famers for example and part of KFC is a producer coop.

Intel is in one of the most capital-intensive businesses possible. Employees are not going to just pool their savings to buy a fab.

I don't think they would need to. Intel has around $20 billion of debt on their balance sheet and I doubt that's money borrowed from shareholders.

It’s never been easier for companies to raise capitol. I’m sure coops can raise the same funds.

No! You raise capital by selling an ownership interest or a portion of your future cash flow. When you’ve done that, it’s no longer employees who own the company and its profits.

Do you think entrepreneurs give up control and ownership of their companies just for fun?

Loans are a thing for established companies. Does not require an ownership change. But is certainly out of range for most SV startups.

You're still paying capitalists a consideration in exchange for the use of their capital. Whether you want to pay them equity or interest, whether you want to document it as "wages" or "profits minus debt," the same thing is happening under the hood: capitalists, not workers, are reaping part of the rewards, and those rewards come from risk, not labor.

> You're still paying capitalists a consideration in exchange for the use of their capital.

That's too reductionist. You could apply that logic to anything that a company pays for. Renting photocopiers? Then the capitalists at Xerox are reaping part of the rewards. It might be true, but it's not very interesting.

Risk is the bread and butter of the finance industry. And the finance industry plays a significant role in the functioning of the economy. It should be regulated, not criminalized.

My coop bank (i.e. credit union) was one of the first tranche of financial institutions to implement Apple Pay.

The 40s would be a lot closer to the “golden era” of the 50s than today. For one, the US was still capable of infrastructure projects- and big ones.

Consider advocating for your local co-op whenever possible!

My anecdotal experience has been the opposite. Electrical service is on par, but the customer service at xcel far eclipses the coop I'm currently stuck with. Its not even a close comparison in terms of responsiveness, clear communication, and transparency of services and pricing offered. Xcel also heavily invests in alternative energy sources.

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