Hello:

I’m Chuck and I wanted to give some background for the development of this blog. Ten years ago, I began to wonder about growth — the accumulation of resources — and whether this can be a solution for everyone. Or does it unnecessarily create winners and losers? This idea led me to the book Beyond Growth by Herman Daly. He explained that measuring economic growth needs to be connected to the actual natural resources available, and not on metrics that exclude them, like GDP. My Amazon review of the book “Growth Isn’t Everything” praises Daly’s ideas on resource analysis. Growth, and the challenges of it, ties into the social challenges of equality, and ultimately environmental problems.

As social and environmental problems have increased, I’ve continued to read other authors that have thought about solutions including E. F. Schumacher, Thomas Frank, Noam Chomsky, Gar Alperovitz, Jean Jaques Rousseau, William Greider, and others. To me, social and environmental problems can be traced to a source: control of wealth. This is the conclusion the Occupy movement put in the public conscience with an emphasis on the 1% that has consolidated wealth.

The basic assessment that there are finite resources on the planet that Daly emphasizes, and a consolidation of resources resulting in social and environmental strife, shows me that some kind of sharing needs to take place.

This is where co-ops come in. There are many resources on the web that explain what a co-op is better than I can. See the International Co-operative Association (ICA) website for a great definition of what a co-op is linked here.

Co-ops are a solution. They are practical and implemented worldwide to the tune of generating $2.5 trillion in income. What is done with that income, and whether even measuring income is the best metric, are questions to be considered.

I started this blog to track ideas related to co-ops. The next post will discuss how the ICA measures the biggest co-ops in the world.

Thanks for reading,

Chuck