I’ve had family fund one, worked for some as a contractor, and had friends work for some more. They’re all bankrupt now, and all of them for the same reason I’ve already explained.

It’s worse than working for someone else, because they’re funded by the workers themselves. When a worker’s coop goes down, workers not only lose their jobs, but also all the capital they’ve put into it. Some fall into a sunken cost fallacy, try to refloat it… only to end up losing even more capital, often get in debt, and also lose their jobs.

When an owner takes advantage of a worker, at least the worker can look for another job without having to pay for the privilege.

Coops work well when members are business-savvy, and when they have a very limited scope with minimal capital investment, allowing members to leave them at any time with minimal loss.