Where I grew up in Minnesota, socialism is an everyday thing. It came of being too rural, too isolated, for corporate America to see us as a marker. So, no corporation wanted to run telephone lines, so the folks got together and formed a co-op phone company.
There weren't diesel gas stations for the farmers, so they formed a co-op for gas and diesel. The grain elevator is a farmer's co-op. The electric company is owned by the city and the farmers get electric from the co-op. Natural gas is a co-op. We had a local grocery co-op store.
My sister's local landline cost $8/month and free long distance to anyone in the co-op area. She would get a check for around $90 in December, a payment to co-op members from the profits of selling access to long distance carriers.
My parents paid less to heat a house in MN 4 times the size of mine in Oregon, a lot less. Some of that is Oregon houses have shitty insulation and no basements, but still, the cost difference is ridiculous.
Credit unions are cheaper & better than banks. They are owned by those they serve. IT makes a difference. Perhaps we need housing co-ops & not like the super expensive Manhattan co-ops, but we need to create our own alternatives since at the moment, we're heading to disaster
