October is National Cooperative Month
There is a place where buyers and sellers meet. It is usually called a market.
But there is another place where people meet for business, and that place is called a cooperative.
Through the cooperative form of business, people become something more than buyers or sellers. They become full participants in the free enterprise system. Co-op members not only buy goods and services from the cooperative, they also own the business. They use combined power to invest their capital, operate their own business, provide themselves and others with goods and services and share the benefits.
Each year, cooperative business generates more than $100 billion in economic activity and enhances the lives of more than 100 million Americans. During the month of October, people from every type of cooperative business celebrate their achievements. Cooperatives contribute so great a value to our nation that we should join the celebration.
As in the past, electric cooperatives are exploring all possible areas that might benefit their memberships economically into the 21st century.
Cooperative businesses bring into the American free enterprise system people from every walk of life and every economic condition. Cooperatives bring people together for housing, health care, groceries, electricity, hardware, telephone, telecommunications and financial services, and cooperatives are inseparable from our nation’s agricultural production, processing and distribution industries.
Earlier in this century, the U.S. Congress confirmed cooperatives’ role in the mainstream of American business. Today, cooperative businesses are an irreplaceable part of our economy. As we look around, we can see many examples of how cooperatives have enriched our communities, large and small and have contributed to our shared prosperity.
Business trends go up and down, and fads and fashions spring up only to fade away. But cooperative business produces an enduring economic liberty for all people. That liberty is worthy of celebrating and preserving.
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