The key to cooperation is reciprocity. Positive reciprocity is the basis of our hope for a more humane future. Capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of labor. Exploitation is the opposite of reciprocity, and capitalism always undermines reciprocity and the cooperative work that is the basis of its own success. All the more, as corporations are more and more dominant, capitalism is inconsistent with reciprocity and cooperation, and even a danger to our very survival.
Government is a system based on threat and domination.
Like capitalism, and perhaps even more, a system of comprehensive government control is destructive of reciprocity and cooperation. It is no answer. In this site, socialism is understood to mean institutionalized reciprocity. The answer we propose, in one word, is democracy . Questions and Answers A Sketch of a Practicable Cooperative Socialist Economic System Cooperative Economics and Green Political Economy Discussions on Cooperation following a Letter to the Editor of the Inquirer.