> how would a Westerner react if they saw me romanticizing the Mondragon cooperatives in Spain?

HN has had posts romanticizing them, maybe check those

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32622140

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41438060

> it created a massive 'zombie company' problem—a heavily discussed issue in Korea and Japan that the West seems largely blind to

Zombie companies in the west are mentioned as a low/ZIRP phenomena. But the west shouldn't have as big an issue with those because companies, when less diversified, get killed off more often by interest rate hikes.