closely following bosses hoard their gold, to the detriment of society as a whole

Again ... more good news from the BRAIN

Turns out REI is firing people and blaming our new depression. (we should really spend some time and figure out a name for this depression ... I can't believe they decided to call the last one "great" because it seems for everything I gather like it sucked real bad.)

REI is a cooperative, but it is a consumer cooperative as opposed to the Baltimore Bicycle Works which is a worker cooperative. Being a worker cooperative gives people more control over their workplace because decisions are made democratically and because positions of authority and responsibility are accountable to all of the people who own shares of the business.

A consumer cooperative gives the patrons of a store deals in exchange for their membership. Not a bad thing in the least, but it is ultimately a business model for a regular old hierarchical corporation.

If the workers at REI got to vote on the direction of their company, I doubt they would vote to loose their jobs while simultaneously opening up new stores. Yet that is what they are going to do.