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starheart.net/coop.html
mirror - starheart.8m.com/coop.html
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Webmeister -StarHeart Web Designs
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Business. CoOperatives. Democracy. Employment. Ownership. Producers. Profit. Stockholders. Unions. Workers.
Unions are OK, but CoOperatives are smarter. Unions, unwittingly, play into the hands of the stockholders. "We must hang together or, assuredly, we will hang separately."  To present information about cooperatives to help people understand how they can use the producer/worker owned cooperative model to improve their lives and their communities. To identify potential partners to form a Working Group to determine the need and feasibility of establishing a cooperative. To use our resources to strengthen the infrastructure for development, enhance the capacity of our partners and be responsive to the needs of development practitioners, specifically we shall: 1 - Serve as the focal point for strategic thinking and planning for cooperative development programs, 2 - Advocate that the cooperative approach is a viable strategy for economic development, and 3 - Be a Learning Center for cooperative development practitioners.
If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. The capitalists want to divide and conquer. They want you to come from a broken home, so that you'll be a workaholic who needs positive strokes from your boss more than you need a decent paycheck. The wealthiest Americans still hold by far the largest percentage of stock assets. In 1992, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, one percent of U.S. families owned 39 percent of corporate stocks. Even pension funds, supposedly a democratizing element in the market, are controlled disproportionately by the rich. Among U.S. workers 60 percent have no pensions at all, and the richest 10 percent of U.S. workers control 62 percent of pension assets.
There's a sociology text titled The Lonely Crowd. That seems to be an appropriate label for our modern American society. Sad but true, now days, neighbors aren't very neighborly, friends aren't very friendly, and family don't even act like family. "No man is an island..." But check the decline of the average household size these last 60 years. And where is your job security? Where are the employees who have loyalty to their employer, when employers make it clear that they have no loyalty toward their employees? "Either hang together or assuredly we'll hang separately."
As the UN Secretary-General ...co-operatives constitute a significant and successful element of the private sector and thus of national economies... ...co-operatives, by their very existence, contribute to the achievement of broad social progress... ...There is still an insufficient awareness of the very substantial economic and social weight of co-operatives throughout the world, and of the degree of their success in adjusting to varied and often hostile societal environments, thereby contributing to the achievement of the personal objectives of millions of individuals, their families and their communities as well as to national economic and social progress... Excerpts from United Nations Secretary-General's Report, "Status and Role of Co-operatives in the Light of New Economic and Social Trends", A/47/216-E/1992/43, 28 May 1992.
By the way, why is it that in America, the wealthiest country in the world, the only ones who have the luxury of socialized medicine is the military?
Why work for a company which most of the profits are siphoned off by stock holders? Why get paid only what your boss thinks you're worth? Be your own boss. Join our how-to self-help support group to brainstorm and develop cooperatively owned and operated businesses. Some ideas are: Art gallery; Auto tune-up; Book store; Boutique radio; Business services; Buyers club; Cabinet making; Carports; Child care; Coffee shop; Computer repair; Conference room rental; Copy shop; Credit and personal financial services; Daycare nursery; Employment; Equipment, hardware and farm supplies; Evergreen Credit Union; Film production; Fish farm; Fish pond installation; Flea market; Food and food services; Funeral planning; Garden nursery; Greenhouse installation; Hauling; Health care; Home nursing; Home repair; House painting; Housing; Ice cream van; Income-tax preparation; Insurance; Janitorial service; Jewelry making; Landscaping; Legal services; Low-cost ecological home construction; Meals on wheels for shut-ins; Praxis Tech; Restaurant; Roofing; Script publishing; Second-hand store; Security patrol; Shrimp farm; Software programming; Tabloid, Taxi Cabs; Temp agency; Urban farm; Utilities and cable T.V. services; & Yard work.
CoOp Wealth
I think that it would be shrewd to borrow ideas from other successful companies. LifePlus is an MLM that pays overrides six levels up. I think that when one of our members recruits a new member then they get 1% of that person's income, forever. If someone birddogs a customer, even if that customer is a large company, then our birddog member gets 2% of all payments received from that customer, forever. Then there's IT&T, a conglomerate of VERY diverse companies. I think we should follow their lead, no not finance the asassination of Chile's President, but with CoOperative Alliance having an ownership of diverse businesses, then: 1) We can go with the business cycle flow, 2) Economize by consolidating administrative overhead costs, 3) Adjust peoples work schedules from one of our companies seeing less activity to one that is getting increased activity. I think our first company should be a temporary placement agency so that: 1) We can immediately start recruiting our compadres, 2) We can line-up customers who have deep pockets, 3) By being spread-out across town and having members in diverse businesses, we can have our pulse on the local economy so that we will know what might be the next field prudent to move into, 4) You can start seeing that 1% from the income of the member you just recruited.
Communism vs. Socialism vs. CoOperatives Capital "C" Communism and capital "S" Socialism is where an authoritarian government dictates to the people under the pretense that the government is doing "good" for the people that they can't decide to do for themselves. Communist China and the former Soviet Union are examples. Small "c" communism and small "s" socialism is when a democratic or representational government makes egalitarian policies. Norway and Sweden are examples. What I'm advocating with CoOperatives is that by individual initiative, people
can band together and, without the aid of governmental policies, can create their own customized "social security"
safety net in any arena they chose - business, health care, education, etc. So, it's a voluntary grassroots approach
to invent your own hybrid network with out having decisions made for you by the government or letting yourself
get manipulated and exploited by stockholder-owned megalithic capitalistic corporations.
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