Worker Cooperatives(pro) versus traditional, capitalist businesses(con)

*Can coops make competitively priced products? *Can the capitalist system be dismantled without government intervention? *Can an economic system without competition be inducive to progress? *Can a cooperative economy be harmful to our civil liberties? *Would a cooperative system cause our society to become a caste society? *Can coops make competativaly priced products? The basic aims of coops do not include making competativaly priced products. The social initiatives, and higher wages to employees, drive up the cost of coop products. Not to say they lack quality, but the plain fact is, Americans don't buy quality, they buy cheap! Coops are more geared toward conscience minded consumers. Health conscience and socially minded consumers who are not as concerned about prices, but these type of consumers make up a minuscule percentage of the population. Most Americans do not engage in that type of specialized consumerism. Changing the entire economic system, would infringe on the freedom of choice for American consumers! *Can our capitalist system be dismantled without government intervention? I think my opponent may not have a totally saturated idea of who, or what the federal reserve is. (my oppologies if I'm wrong about my essesment) He suggested that the fed should not replenish the supply of cash to banks who don't lend to coops. There are a couple issues with that statement. My opponents was somehow using that statement to prove that he was arguing against government intervention, but if the fed could do such a thing (withhold cash from banks), that would be government intervention, you can't force banks to do business with people they don't want to lend to without goverment intervention.https://en.m.wikipedia.org.... The wiki link I provided shows how the fed is both publically and privately owned. The fed is partially made up of some of the largest privately owned banks in the country, and every legitimate bank must hold stock in the federal reserve. To suggest that the fed could somehow punish the banks for not doing business with coops, is like suggesting that the banks would punish themselves. The fed IS the banks, and since the fed has privately owned entities within it, the government is not allowed to impose to heavily on the internal decisions of the fed. The only real power the government has over the fed is it chooses the chairman(who's a woman) of the board. Banks don't loan to coops becuase the amount of money invested in them, wouldn't justify the amount of time to make profit for the bank, and the profit margin might be to low to justify investing in coops. (from the banks standpoint). Furthermore, my opponent suggests that all economics classes be required to teach cooperative bussiness practices. Then he goes on to say that all public schools are owned by the government, and they dictate the ciriculum of these schools. I think this statement gives us a peek into the mind of my opponent, who feels that our government should tell us how, and what we teach. I think we all know (barring my opponent) that public schools a PUBLICALLY owned. The American public has the power (for now) to dictate how and what our schools teach. Maybe my opponent thinks we should "rely" on the government to control our education (a Pink Floyd song just came to mind), but I think we the public realize that education is not owned. I think my opponents argument is, if coops are taught in schools, and banks have "incentive" to loan to coops, then the public will realize the bennefits to coops and choose to dissolve our capitalist system. I think that can't be done without government initiatives that would harm our civil liberties. *Can an economic system without competition be inducive to progress? My opponent neglected to make any rebuttal about the argument I made that lack of competition will stiffle technological progress. I feel he was unable to disprove my argument, and it is a point that should be considered by any potential judge of this debate. *Can a cooperative economic system be harmful to our civil liberties? I'm not sure why my opponent didn't spend more time addressing this, since he's a libertarian. In my oppinion, if a cooperative economic ideal were implemented, then businesses would require more power to encroach on our personal lives, for the sake of production. They may want to be able to see your search history on your home computer, who your friends are and what your posting on social media. They may want to better know your medical history, and require regular checkups, and frequent drug testing. I think my opponent barely addressed this issue, and it leaves us with some question marks about his thoughts on the issue. (I understand that some of this may be considered new arguments in the final round, I did mention this in my first argument, but I may have expounded on it a little to much in this round, if my opponent objects, I invite him to say so in the comment section, and all judges should consider his objection if he indeed has one.) *Can a cooperative system cause our society to become a caste society? Surprisingly, again my opponent neglects another facet of my argument that he should have been all over since he's a libertarian. I don't think my opponent properly addressed the argument that I made about my fears that a collectivist infused economic ideal would make it difficult or impossible for us to climb the economic ladder. It's unfortunate he didn't speak of this, I would have liked to hear his thoughts on it. From one libertarian to another. (albeit, different kinds of libertarians). In my oppinion, this debate would have been far more difficult for me if it was just, coops verses traditional businesses. However, my opponent decided to make the debate about a cooperative economic system as apposed to a capitalist system. A worker owned cooperative business can be a successful business plan, but disregarding our entire economic system for a collectivist system could prove to be invasive on our freedom of choice, privacy, and private property. I would like to thank my opponent for an interesting debate, and I wish him good luck!!!