Words&Dirt

“In a world dominated by the capitalist market and its accompanying utilitarian ethos––which views human behavior as competitive and self-interested––the very idea that human beings might be drawn to a cooperative business model based on collaboration, equity, and sustainability seems hopelessly impractical.  Yet much of humanity is already organizing at least some parts of its economic life in cooperative associations operating in Commons.  It’s just that we never hear about it.  The year 2012 was officially recognized by the United Nations as the International Year of Cooperatives, but a quick Google search shows barely a blip of news about the year-long celebrations.  Perhaps it’s because the global media are concentrated in the hands of a few giant for-profit media companies that decide what is news.

The fact is, more than 1 billion people are currently members of cooperatives––that’s one out of every seven human beings on Earth.  More than 100 million people are employed by cooperatives, or 20 percent more employees than in multinational companies.  The 300 largest cooperatives would be equivalent in population to the tenth-largest country in the world.  In the United States and Germany, one out of every four people is a member of a cooperative.  In Canada, four out of every ten people are members of cooperatives.  In India and China, 400 million people belong to cooperatives.  In Japan, one out of every three families are members of cooperatives and in France, 32 million people participate in cooperatives.”

––The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism, by Jeremy Rifkin, pg. 212-3