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Time to Think Big
In America, we generally know non-profits and cooperatives to be small, modest operations that are fueled mainly by the passion and commitment of a core group of dedicated believers, including volunteers or underpaid staff.
Non-profits generally have a public-service mission (Of course, there’s been an explosion of sham non-profits in the USA over the past few decades; for-profit companies have moved to nonprofit status to take advantage of tax exemptions and lower postage rates, and then pay their CEOs huge salaries.)
Small community-based non-profits and health-food co-ops are the models familiar to Americans. While they have a good reputation, they are generally seen as inconsequential, economically speaking. To use the vernacular of the tech world, such co-ops are not “scalable,” and therefore will remain small in size and scope.
But Mondragon, and other large co-ops around the world like Asiapro in the Philippines, exemplify another business model. Every bit as aggressive, every bit as competitive, and every bit as successful as large for-profit corporations, the Mondragon Corporation offers a serious alternative to predatory capitalism that puts workers first, caters to the needs of customers and, perhaps more importantly, establishes a business model that is fair, humane and equitable.
Early economic models – from monarchy to hierarchy to capitalism – represent ways for the predatory and the acquisitive to rise to the top of the pile and get as much as they can. As such, they foster the human qualities of greed and aggression.
One way to consider the fundamental issue is to ask: “Is the economy here to serve workers, or are workers here to serve those who own the economy?” The answer of old-fashioned capitalism – reaching all the way back to Gilgamesh’s time in 2700 B.C. – is that workers are here to serve the economy and its owners.
But that can be changed, and is being all over the world. It is entirely possible, in 21st century America, for us to begin to use the tools of technology and finance to spawn large numbers of Mondragon-like cooperative corporations right here.
If a $24 billion cooperative venture can be successfully established in the remote Basque region of northern Spain, surely it can be done in modern day metropolises of the wealthiest nation on earth.
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