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Cooperative Capitalism: Market-Compatible Frameworks for Distributed Ownership, Intergenerational Equity, and Post-Scarcity Economics

A. C. Applebee, L. N. Combe · 2026

Abstract

Contemporary economic discourse remains trapped in a false dichotomy between unfettered capitalism and state-controlled economies, despite mounting evidence that neither paradigm adequately addresses inequality, ecological collapse, or the systematic misallocation of human labour. This paper synthesises evidence from cooperative economics, ecological intelligence research, intergenerational governance theory, decolonial studies, educational science, and labour sociology to propose a comprehensive framework for Cooperative Capitalism — a market-compatible system that restructures ownership, governance, and incentive mechanisms to prioritise distributed prosperity, ecological sustainability, and long-term value creation. Drawing on David Graeber’s research demonstrating that approximately 40% of workers consider their employment meaningless, alongside evidence that global food production exceeds the needs of 10 billion people while 800 million go hungry, we argue that scarcity is primarily a distribution failure rather than a production constraint.

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