Worker cooperatives sound great on paper: democracy, equality, shared ownership. But when you drop them into a free-market economy, they run into massive roadblocks. From capital shortages to decision-making paralysis, from risk aversion to competitive disadvantages, history and economics both show why co-ops rarely scale up to rival capitalist corporations. In this episode, Jeff breaks down the theory, the evidence, and the case studies from U.S. plywood mills to Mondragon in Spain to explain why free markets favor capitalist firms.

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