mutual

[me78]

Hi,
Does the" cooperative initiatives" mean the idea and the vision of the cooperative
e.g.:
" Britain's supermarkets draw inspiration from co-operative initiatives
2) To be sure if it is true,the sentence that I already published and this is:
" In a short joint statement, the two societies said they had "agreed to discuss the possibillity of a merger"
joint statement in this context means common report?
3) merger of a consumer-owned mutual retailer = what does it mean mutual here
thanks

[curmudgeon]

A Mutual Society is an organisation set up and owned by its members and, theoretically, run for their benefit. The Cooperative Society is a system where members enjoy dividends by purchasing their food clothing electrical goods etc from the society's shops. In other words they are non-profit making organisations

[BobK]

A Mutual Society is an organisation set up and owned by its members and, theoretically, run for their benefit...

So, Me78, a word you may come across in financial writing about the last 15-odd years (in the UK - and I'm not too sure about the number, but I think the trend started in the early '90s) is demutualization. A Mutual Society can (if enough members are in favour) sell itself (on the Stock Exchange). Of course, at the moment of the sale the current members make a profit (usually of three figures, sometimes four). Some people think this is unfair, because current members cash in the benefits built up by previous members. But a lot of these 'demutualizations' have happened - it's hard to turn down a windfall (unexpected stroke of good fortune involving no effort on the part of the recipient) like that.

b

[me78]

thank you Bob, you are born for teacher

[BobK]

thank you Bob, you are born for teacher

Too kind

b

ps: say either 'verb_in_present a born some_noun' or 'verb_in_past to some_verb' - e.g. 'he is a born leader'/'he was born to lead'

[curmudgeon]

He was born with a chalk in his hand

[BobK]

He was born with a chalk in his hand

Yeah - couldn't let it go!

b