By Jake Karlyle
PROUT Research Institute, Australia
Paper given at the Hobart conference 'Community, Economy and the Environment: Exploring Tasmania’s Future', 15 October 2005
The topic for discussion is: “A Cooperative Economy – What Might It Look Like?” Over the last 150 years or so, two socio-economic systems have dominated the world: capitalism and communism. Capitalism is synonymous with individual …
When you have got a global market, people do not think they can actually impact on the economic situation in which they find themselves. But they can impact on their local environment. There is this huge renaissance of community going on. -Pauline Green, President of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA).
By Trond Overland
(March 2012) – Ours is a time …
| Traditional | Capitalist | Socialist | Communist | Prout | |
| Ownership | Right to private ownership | Right to private ownership | State ownership | State ownership | Worker/Member ownership |
| Cooperation | Subordinated | Subordinated | Subordinated | Subordinated | Coordinated |
| Profit | Profit | Profit is everything | Profit motivation | Profit motivation | Consumption motivation |
| Morality | Objective morality based on laws |
No concept of morality | Objective morality | No morality | Morality based on cardinal human values and spiritual values |
What is the main idea of PROUT cooperatives?
Sarkar writes:
“A human being cannot live alone. If a person wants to drink water from a well, he or she needs a rope and a bucket, and to tie the rope one needs a hook. For all these things, the help of the others is indispensable. In society human beings have …
By Michael Towsey
[Contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications.]
The cooperative system is fundamental to the organization and structure of a Prout (the Progressive Utilization Theory) economy. It is an expression of economic democracy in action – cooperative enterprises give workers the right of capital ownership, collective management and all the associated benefits, such as profit …
The basic reason for having cooperatives as a form of economic enterprise in an economy is to help people work together and move forward in a collective way. Cooperatives are considered to be the best form of economic enterprise because they are capable of seeking a balanced adjustment between collective spirit and individual rights. Dieter Dambiec summarizes PROUT’s views on …
Dieter Dambiec
All people have the right to be guaranteed minimum requirements such as food (including water), clothing, housing, education and medical care. These basic requirements should be cooperatively produced because they are essential collective requirements.
The importance of food means there has to be maximum and safe utilisation of agricultural land. The best way to achieve proper …
P.R. Sarkar
As you know, human society is one and indivisible. A human being cannot live alone. If a person wants to drink water from a well, he or she needs a rope and a bucket, and to tie the rope one needs a hook. For all these things, the help of the others is indispensable.
In society human beings …
Ac. Tadbhavananda Avt.
The biggest problem the undeveloped and developing countries face is how to eradicate the poverty and starvation of their people. The developed countries have to some extent succeeded in providing the minimum guarantees of life by providing a measure of purchasing capacity. But still most people even there are facing chronic social insecurity. The cause behind the …
Adapted from A Look at Decentralized Economy and the Cooperative System, by Ac. Tadbhavananda Avt., PROUT Research Institute, Copenhagen, 1993
A PROUT cooperative is not basically profit-motivated. It understands the need for itself to stay afloat, to evolve, and to provide the members of, say, a producers cooperative with more and more incentives and amenities than they would get …