Forum Post: Cooperativism versus Marxism, Socialism, Capitalism
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 20, 2011, 10:38 a.m. EST by THETRUTH
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A cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit.[1] A cooperative is defined by the International Cooperative Alliance's Statement on the Cooperative Identity as "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise".[2] A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or by the people who work there. Various aspects regarding cooperative enterprise are the focus of study in the field of cooperative economics.
Cooperatives and communes don't work when they get really big. They work really well for small groups, maybe extended families, but they become less efficient as the size of the group increases, for a specific reason.
From a game theory point of view, each individual benefits from the success of the group when the group is small, because any inefficiency is felt by all, so everybody is motivated to contribute. In a larger group, the individual benefits most-efficiently by contributing as little as possible, and taking as much benefit as possible from the group. As the number of people grows larger, the number of people who play that tactic will increase proportionally. In larger groups this becomes unfair to the people who work the hardest and contribute the most, and take the least for themselves. The fundamental rules of human society, the balance of the needs of the individual against the needs of the group, inherently penalize the most productive behavior.
Correct me if I am wrong, but there are many kinds of cooperatives. I am thinking something along the lines of an enterprise that is a little less competitive and instead more cooperative among the members, recognizing human beings first rather than profits.
Uh that is part of capitalism. Its split ownership which is still private.