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Comment by megaman821 | Hacker News Reader

Nothing in the current capitalist system stops the creation of worker cooperatives. If they are the superior solution what is holding them back? The major critique of worker cooperatives that I have heard is that they are inflexible. They have a large incentive not to change because change would disrupt the jobs of the people who make up the cooperative.

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It’s hard to obtain startup capital for cooperatives, because if the people supplying the capital want equity, then it’s no longer a cooperative. So they have to get loans, and banks that offer loans don’t want to take risks.

Once established however worker cooperatives do very well.

If a cooperative is inflexible, couldn't another cooperative out-compete it? Provided the market is competitive, this doesn't seem like a big problem.

One thing I have read is that cooperatives are less likely to grow into monopolizing behemoths because they approximately maximize profit in proportion to the number of workers rather than overall; they will only grow to the most efficient size. I can't remember where I read this, but it makes sense to me (although I'm not an economist.)

It is only your perception that coops are somehow being held back. Cooperatives have succeeded in every industry. The vast majority of industry requires Free Software, a cooperative system. I went to the store yesterday and bought milk, eggs, and flour from worker-owned dairies and mills, to say nothing of the weekly farmers' market.

I grew up shopping at a Bi-Mart. Some folks have entire careers at Mondragon. Worker cooperatives are incredibly successful; we should really be asking why traditional corporations get so many subsidies and tax benefits.

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