Ted Audio Collective

When you think of the word co-op, what comes to your mind?

Maybe a building you live in, where you have some type of ownership, where you get to

choose who your neighbors will be, or maybe a nursery where parents help with the work

of the school.

Yep, those are co-ops.

And when I think of a co-op, the first one that comes to mind is my old grocery store

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I knew I could get cheaper prices on groceries if

I became a member and volunteered.

But I never did.

The point behind co-ops is that you invest time and energy into an organization, and in

return, you get to be involved in decision-making in some form of fashion.

It truly is a give and take.

And I thought the critical ingredient is that you need time to volunteer.

But today's speaker shows that there is so much more to co-ops than what I just described.

This is Ted Business.

I'm Madu Baccanola.

Look, in business, we talk all about capitalism, competitive markets, free markets, wage labor.

Capitalism is considered the key way to fuel the economy.

But today's speaker offers an alternative method, and she claims it's more effective

and more humane than capitalism.

It's co-operativism.

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