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How cooperatives can lift people out of poverty
I want to give a few more examples of companies that do incredible service around the world. In this, I want to include more types of business that help people or can help. This blog post is going to focus on cooperatives. I will outline some of the benefits, explain what they are, some of the challenges specific cooperatives face, and some of the good things they do.
What is a Co-op?
” A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”
Examples: Farmers co-op in Lamoni, credit unions, Welch’s (Juice Coop
What were some of the earliest co-ops?
- The Modern Coop movement started in the 19th
- “The first mutual insurance company was formed in England in 1696, offering fi re insurance.”
- Others date back to basket weavers in the late 1400s grouping together and selling baskets at a discount.
What are the most common types of co-ops?
- A co-operative can be used to accomplish almost any purpose: to fulfill a need, obtain a product or service, produce a product or service, or secure employment.
Case Example: Mondragon
Mondragon is a large cooperative that employees tens of thousands of people in Spain. It believes that it job is employing and then making a profit. This is contrary to the normal cooperate structure where shareholder wealth comes first. This is uniquely demonstrated in the way they do business between cooperatives. For example, in time of stress to one sector of Mondragon, instead of firing employees, they shift them to other cooperatives. In essence they are relocating someone so the work can keep his or her job. This is done through the cooperative rather than the individuals relocating by themselves.
They also show this sense of community when the cooperatives share money with each other. When another cooperative is in need of capital, they share resources and give capital to the cooperative need. Mondragon also believes in employee ownership where 45% of the earning go back to the employees in a fund that the cooperative uses and then pays the employees back in retirement.
This is a great concept; however, I am concerned for the employees if Mondragon ever runs into a patch of bad management and they end up squandering this employee pension fund. It reminds me of how funds, holding retirement savings, lost money in the Enron collapse. Of course, the counter argument can be maid that other companies have similar types of plans for its employees, what makes this cooperative any more likely to go out of business. I see Mondragon as a quality workers coop and hope that it does good things for Spain and its community in the future.
Cooperative Spirit of People:
Cooperative Powers
Power to condemn others, and oneself, is weaker than power to help others, as oneself. Power to destroy others, and oneself, is lesser than power to regenerate others, and oneself, interdependently. Powers of fear and anger management, with terrifying consequences and pathological climate outcomes, are absorbed by more resonant powers of active love incarnating integrity. Power to compete and win exclusive victories is anemic when contrasted with polypathic powers to cooperate economically, as politically, as ecologically smarter, as psychologically healthier, as empathically balancing trust with anti-ecological mistrust, as socially astute, as culturally polypathic, as peacefully, as justly, as gracefully, as karmically, as cosmically, as zero-zentrically organically incarnated. Regenerative powers begin within still small, in-between, enthymematic communication’s co-empathic voices of bicamerally embryonic (0) sum appositional-cooperative balance. A fundamental ecological problem for fascism, and totalitarian governance strategies supporting egocentric monoculturalism, whether of oneself, or one’s anthro-supremacist enculturing nation within an interdependent international planetary DNA/RNA Solidarity network, or to build another Global Empire instead of regenerative self-governing solidarity within the entire world, or any other portion of EarthTribe in between these ways we choose to slice our primary home-identity pie, our enduring ecopolitical issue is fascism’s single-minded fascination with strength of power solely through internally united force, as if one could optimize YangLandscapes without equivalent interdependent YinClimate-healthflow. Both internal psychological and external ecopolitical climates of fascist fear/anger mongering, managing through condemnation, motivated by climates of fear, collective nationalistic paranoia, are blind to these far greater polypathic powers of multiculturally inclusive flow. Our optimally facile, yin-flexible, ebbing and flowing, anti-Yang fascist, strength emerges from our internally embryonic Yang/Yin co-empathic bilateral trust, our basic mutual regard, our intent toward regenerative health for all by avoiding lesser WinLose suboptimizing compromises, by constantly embracing full-flowing polypathic powers of integrative inclusion, Ego/EcoLogical MultiCulturing WinWin MindBodies, BiCamerally DNA-fractal (0)-sum polypathically sensory-neural programmed regenerative evolution of human-time’s climate and internal/external landscapes of political health as ecological wealth for long-term future generations, as for today, each hour, each moment, each life, each (0)-zen nanosecond of bicameral ego/ecoconscious enthymematic rememory. Political leaders whose primary appeal is their experience with anger and fear management, corporate surgery, and/or pharmaceutical escapism culturally covering WinWin opportunities for ecotherapy, and WinLose economic strategic assumptions about the diverse strengths and weaknesses of truly humane evolution, are elected by populations invested in settling for public policies and procedures intended to reduce pathological fears through cultural denial of distinctions between healthy cooperative empathic-trust exchanges and further pathological climate change, masking as EcoPolitical Business as Fascist-Survivalist WinLose Usual. Thereby missing opportunities to more heroically and victoriously, and, oh yes, regeneratively sing and dance and proclaim and march toward Earth’s healthier external climates, and internal landscapes of truly ecologically balanced ecopolitical wealth optimizing futures for all us ego/ecoconscious bicameral-balancing polypaths, as for our EarthTribe Elders, as toward our postmillennial ReGenerators of Earth’s ReCreation, and not so much fascist-survivalist xenophobic marching in anger and fear management politically bicamerally imbalanced circles and squares. Certainly Earth’s evolutionary intelligence must be smarter than a mere Trump Card, favoring further WinLose pathologies, when WinWin Permacultural Cooperative EcoPolitics is waiting to become reborn reweaving regenerativity’s multicultural potential as our more integrated ego/ecoconscious polypathic trusting selves.
Sources:
Why we should care about the world’s most poor? Aren’t they Just Lazy?
The Poor Getting More Poor – Poem by Francis Duggan
Time it does pass slowly when you’ve got no work to do
And every hour spent idle it passes slow as two
One’s better by far working no matter what the pay
It’s a better way to pass the time than idling all day.
But some have to stay idle for them there is no job
And they depend upon the State to get their living bob
And for those who are unemployed the hands of time turn slow
And boredom creeps into their lives and boredom grow and grow.
How come there’s not enough work enough to go around
As all of those who can work ought to be entitled for to earn their living pound
There should be jobs for everyone as unemployment is caused by greed
And it’s all of those who don’t share and share alike put other souls in need.
As the unemployment figures rise the crime rate rises too
Circumstance cause some to turn to crime they’ve little choice but to
With no spare cash in pocket and of work they’ve been denied
And puny hand outs from the State does little for one’s pride.
It’s a strange World we live in the poor getting more poor
And the rich keep getting richer more powerful and secure
And if some people turn to crime on them don’t put full blame
As measly hand outs from the State force them to lives of shame.
This poem really hits at the core of capitalism. Though I am an advocate for structured capitalism, it is often the cause of widespread income inequality. By this I mean that the people who control the resources continue to control a larger and larger percentage of the scarce and limited resources available. I do not fault them for doing this because it is out of self interest. I would argue that capitalism is one of the best ways to allocate resources. However, this selfishness leaves people who could be productive in situations where they are not. There are so many people that are not living up to their potential because resources are spread disproportionately across the globe in a way that hurts the entire world.
I would like you to think about how many people could be productive if they were not in the situation they are in. For example, if you were to take a young person in India who is interested in IT and teach them the skills to be a professional, he would be able to do the job as well as someone from the U.S. who had similar skills. My point here is that this young person often time is not doing this type of work because he has to do some other task like that is less productive. These tasks could range from walking three miles a day for fresh drinking water to selling sheep goods a the market. These types of work are less productive and just keep him or her alive while a person in the U.S. who has the opportunity to learn these trades cannot.
For each person that is able to capitalize on there abilities the portion of resources increases for everyone. We should be trying to do this. Let’s increase the quality of life for everyone and everyone including the rich will be richer. It is this relationship we should have within the U.S. and around the world that will bring revolutionary prosperity to the globe.
Who are we helping?
In past blogs I have outlined different aspects of exploitation. I have given examples and offered solutions. Now I want to show who it is that we can help through a catalog of images and stories.
Micro-credit
Michel was loaned money to restock her business after the 2010 earthquake the hit Haiti.
Read More: http://www.finca.org/client/for-her-family-and-community/
Francisco Jose Ortiz Alvarez
Jose was loaned money to finance a bakery which his brother delivers by bike and a shop where he sells art to the community.
http://www.finca.org/client/portrait-of-an-artist/
These are stories of people who were impacted by financing opportunities. Because of access they were able to start their own business and create value locally.
These are stories from one company who offers financing to people in need. I think the world need more of this kind of enabling. We must allow these people to help themselves through lending and giving access to certain services.
Ending Exploitation 