Comment by Der_Einzige
11 hours ago
Co-ops, employee owned businesses, and credit unions are antithetical to American ruthless capitalist exploitation. They are economically "inefficient" since they don't maximize the exploitation of their customers.
Also, what good products do any of these groups make (besides credit unions which are superior to traditional banks)? Sure I can go to winco for cheap groceries, but REI isn't exactly the bastion of quality that its buyers pretend it is (their stuff is cheap crap).
The sad reality is that if you, the customer, want a good product, you want the company who makes it to exploit its workers. This is also the real reason why unions died in America. All the US car companies are unionized and that famously caused US company workers circa the late 70s and 80s to be literally drunk/high on the job all the time (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Assembly) Meanwhile most Japanese car factories aren't unionized, and you get literally the most reliable and best fit/finish in the industry from doing it.
"In fact, there are about 30,000 co-ops in the U.S., which account for more than $3 trillion in assets, more than $500 billion total revenue, and more than 2 million jobs, according to figures from the National Cooperative Business Association."
https://www.businessinsider.com/co-ops-business-plan-2011-10
Fwiw- REI is not a workers coop, it is owned by its customers who have a say in the operation in proportion to how much they spent. So in theory at least your interests are aligned.
I'll also add that if the excess profits are going to shareholders than I do not care about the labor savings a company gets by exploiting their workers.