Whatever their partisan hue, Cheeseheads seem to think that cooperatives are always worth considering as a possible way of organizing things. Southwest Wisconsin alone is home to innumerable cheese and utility co-operatives, while in my hometown of Madison, co-ops provide everything from groceries to rides to the airport. But maybe Madison and other cities should not just welcome co-ops, but be managed like them. That may sound a bit too progressive even for the town some like to call “100 square miles surrounded by reality.” But according to The Economist (July 13, 2013; p. 60), “Joseph Chamberlain, a retired mayor of Birmingham in England, likened the government of cities to a ‘joint stock or co-operative enterprise in which every citizen is a shareholder, and of which the dividends are receivable in the improved health and the increase in the comfort and happiness of the community.’” The year? —1892.
