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Re: [ox-en] Robinsonades



On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Christian Siefkes
<christian siefkes.net> wrote:
And consumer cooperatives with enough capital can merely become further
capitalists, they don't change the rules of the game at all.

If a cooperative is TRULY owned by the consumers, then profit MUST be
treated as an investment from the consumer who paid it - otherwise the
cooperative originators will gain more and more ownership as the
cooperative grows while the new non-owning consumers would pay price
above cost without ever gaining ground.

I claim there is no such cooperative in existence.

If such a coop were begun, it WOULD change the rules (it must enforce
those rules through a self-applied, legally binding contract) because
the goals of production would be for product (use value), not profit
(exchange value).

Don't you think things would be different if the collective consumers
owned the oil fields and refineries?  We already pay for all the costs
of production AND we pay the current owners an amount called 'profit'.

The billions in profits (that you seem to think are insignificant)
would no longer leave our communities, and we could even pay the
workers more since we would be saving so much by avoiding the
externality called 'profit'.

If you say price is not above cost, then what are those 'earnings'
reports that Exxon and others brag about?  Are they really 'earning'
that which was gained only because we (the consumers/citizens) lack
ownership?
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de



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