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Yeah I can understand that. Honestly, the non profit / coop thing is just a big part of Austin culture. Not only are food coops a pretty big deal in Austin, bu

Yeah I can understand that. Honestly, the non profit / coop thing is just a big part of Austin culture. Not only are food coops a pretty big deal in Austin, but when I lived in Austin even the electricity company that I got my power from was a coop (https://www.pec.coop/ https://www.pec.coop/) and if the coop made too much money it redistributed the profits back out as credits to member accounts. I generally ended up with one out of twelve months effectively being free because of profit credits being redistributed back out to my account. The whole culture of coops and nonprofit service organizations is something I really miss about Austin now that I no longer live there.

ambicapter 10y ago
> if the coop made too much money it redistributed the profits back out as credits to member accounts. This is great and all, but wouldn't that money be more effectively utilized maintaining or upgrading the grid or investing in renewable energy? Seems like the co-op model never really invests in progress.
- Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
  "never"? The (UK) Co-operative Bank was 99% powered by renewables in 2014.
- NathanKP 10y ago
  I don't think coops are necessarily anti maintenance or investment. Obviously they have to maintain their core business just like any other business. The difference is a for profit company distributes extra profit that they have on top of their basic needs out as dividends to big investors and as salary for a CEO. On the other hand a coop distributes that same money out to all the customers.
jimmywanger 10y ago
With for-profit enterprises, there's generally an objective measure of how well you're doing, the bottom line. Non profits, you can get a lot of people arguing about how to best fulfill the intents of the non-profit. In that situation, whoever argues the most persuasively or loudly wins, and it's the customers that suffer.

ambicapter 10y ago

> if the coop made too much money it redistributed the profits back out as credits to member accounts. This is great and all, but wouldn't that money be more effectively utilized maintaining or upgrading the grid or investing in renewable energy? Seems like the co-op model never really invests in progress.

Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
"never"? The (UK) Co-operative Bank was 99% powered by renewables in 2014.
NathanKP 10y ago
I don't think coops are necessarily anti maintenance or investment. Obviously they have to maintain their core business just like any other business. The difference is a for profit company distributes extra profit that they have on top of their basic needs out as dividends to big investors and as salary for a CEO. On the other hand a coop distributes that same money out to all the customers.

jimmywanger 10y ago

With for-profit enterprises, there's generally an objective measure of how well you're doing, the bottom line. Non profits, you can get a lot of people arguing about how to best fulfill the intents of the non-profit. In that situation, whoever argues the most persuasively or loudly wins, and it's the customers that suffer.