WHAT IS A CORPORATION?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

One cool alternative to a corporation is a co-op. There are worker co-ops, were the workers share ownership and member co-ops. MEC is an awesome example of a member co-op. Very cool to read about..

Co-ops (incl credit unions) are just another type of corporation. Here is how our CRA looks at it.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...s/thr-eng.html

They are given certain benefits, like tax breaks, for being non-profit. I actually belong to one, and buy almost all my fuel from them.

But the downside is that usually they lack the expertise, sophistication and motivation to compete with their for profit cousins. And they don't contribute much (in taxes) to pay for our education, health care, social services etc, like individuals and for profit corporations do.

The old Soviet Union essentially operated like a bunch of giant cooperatives, except their "members" didn't always have a lot of say in how they were operated.