The case for co-ops, the invisible giant of the economy | Anu Puusa [TEST]

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Wow i get to do that a lot around here. It's finally someone else's turn. So yes i happen to marital wonderful man named ted which is pretty rare in finland where i'm from. It's not a typical finnish name at. Aw trust me i myself. I'm a business professor. And i love teaching but you know what my students are fed up. They have really fed up. With the way the business is growing the environment and making wealth inequality was and putting money and profits above all else. And what really makes them mad is when i tell them about the cooperative movement the angry because once they understand how cooperatives they feel like a secret solution has been kept hayden before i tell you more about why cooperative sauce so great. I want to explain what they are. A corporate. dave is an organization that is owned by its members who are also its customer and decision maker and unlike most businesses where certain owners can buy more power and influence in a corporate day of every member has one vote which was the revolutionary idea back when the model was first introduced a regular mind not dimension a woman with no significant means or prestigious position in the society as an owner and partner in business on heard of perhaps it's still a bit revolutionary. Copa dave's exist in a sweet spot between the for profit and nonprofit worlds. They uniqueness is based on the idea of duality. They have two distinct but complementary roles on one hand they act like any other business and try to make money but on the other hand cooperatives are and do so much more they are scented enterprises run by and for then members and they tried to achieve economical but also social and cultural goes to benefit those members who are just regular people like you and me and what has happened for. Almost two hundred years is that cooperatives have proven to make decisions with a view across generations instead of quarter to quarter to benefit more people and wells in communities that might not otherwise attract investment while. Still being competitive and innovative. Sounds pretty good right. I guess that's why. At the end of a clause the other day student all red and chest up basically shouted at me of always been a straight a student. Done all the work read. All the books are now you telling me that all my life. I've missed hearing about a movement with this magnitude. I get this a lot. The organized corporate they've movement started in eighteen forty four with the russia's society of equitable pioneers. This was a group of weavers and artisans who are of desperation. Opened a store together to sell things that they could neither get nor afford alone. The cooperative movements from there and became a global phenomenon. Many of the modern day credit unions and farm credit systems. You see in. North america are descendants of the famous cooperative reiffeisen system in germany and here in finland. A man named hanis gephardt is considered to be the father of the finnish cooperative movement in the nineteenth century. He introduced cooperatives to help. People tackle debt poverty and unemployment. It turns out. This is the foundation opo country known for its democratic values high quality education and the happiness of its citizens and this line of impact of cooperative movement can be found in other places in the world to. I'm proud to say that invalided terms. Finland is one of the most cooperative countries in the world. We have about five point. Five million people who have over seven million memberships in cooperatives. That's run everything from groceries to banks each time. I stop at grocery cooperative. When i feel in my guest tank edo jointly owned restaurant. Stay at a hotel or buy clothes. Ohad west of i could bonuses. That can be up to five percent. And when i pay with bank card get an additional half percent off and i know that win. The copa davis doing well. It's not funding a single person's luxury vacation in the bahamas every year. A governance body comprised of elected representatives decides. How any operating surplus will be used. Some of the money will go back to the members. For example this year all consume the corporate dave boyer's caroline also or beco- or as we call it it's part of the group is the biggest corporate of croup in finland. They had a so close of two percent or members purchases and twelve percent return on money invested. When you add up the savings and the return my family received more than two thousand years back which is more than we spend on groceries in one month not to mention that across race above seven percent cheaper than its main competitor. i'm a member owner intrigue cooperatives and my husband has four memberships consumer a bank an insurance and water cooperative. We have two beautiful girls who are ten and twelve years old. And they're also member owners of the s group then. Memberships caused us one hundred euros. Each we want to pass on the legacy and teach them about the benefits of corporate gives early on and of course they're very happy about the yearly interest on cooperative capital. But it's just about us getting money back. It's about the greater good for our community. I'm not only talking about taxes and employment. Our consumer cooperative is the biggest employer in the area. I'm talking about support for young people. Sports arts university and cultural events for example as a member of the board of beco- or a few years ago we agreed to build a sports hall fully exa which is a nearby city here in the eastern part of finland belonging to our cooperatives operational area after we built it. The city signed a very long term rental agreement with us so financially investment made sense and of course it was a major gesture to the local people who not have proper facilities to do all kinds of sports in another case. We ended up rejecting the investment proposal regarding building a senior house downtown. The idea was very good one but we declined because it was the big hosting complex requiring a lot of capital with low expected investment return that would only serve a small part of the membership less than one percent of our over one hundred thousand members and therefore we decided against it

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