I thought I had posted the following in January after reading the article on co-op statistics. It was a fluke that my January notes file was open and open to this article. But I couldn't find it among my actual posts. Better late than never!
Capitalism thrives all over the world, but few of us see much of it, being blinded by the ads of the multinational corporations. The co-operative movement is a huge source of personal investment by workers or customers. Actually it is so huge that co-operatives provide over 100 million jobs around the world, 20% more than multinational enterprises. (Source: Statistical information on the Co-operative Movement). Then there are all the individual or small group owner-operator enterprises that still exist, though less and less in retail.
I can't complain too much about absentee capitalism because I get a portion of my income from dividends of corporations whose leaders I don't remember past skimming the annual reports. However, we do buy most of our groceries at Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth where we are owner-members.
My chances of serving on a board of one of these large corporations are as much as the proverbial snow ball*, but if I so chose, I would be welcome to run as a candidate for the board of Whole Foods Co-op (actually getting elected and serving well are different issues).
* For readers who are not familiar with American idioms - As much chance as a snowball in Hell
