I mean, the point is that the difference between working for a company and being part owner of a co-op is the difference between you still earning the same salary or you earning nothing and owing creditors.
When a company is healthy it is able to pay salaries to employees and profit to owners. When it's bankrupt is paying 0 salaries and 0 dividends.
When it's in trouble, a company will have to choose who to sacrifice: firing employees or cutting dividends. The priority of privately owned companies is to maximize value for the shareholders. They are more important than employees, by design.
In a coop workers and owners are the same people so they are the first priority, that's all.
Statistics show very clearly that coops have a higher survival rate.
> you earning nothing and owing creditors
Once again, no, as an owner of a limited company going bankrupt you don't owe to creditors.
Oh, you can owe money you personally guaranteed. You're also jointly and severally liable in a general partnership. LLCs are nice in that you can have the tax benefits of a partnership and the liability protection of a corporation if set up correctly. This 'corporate veil's only puts the value of the money that you put into the corporation at risk i.e. the value of your investment. However, certain actions could 'pierce' the corporate veil if the LLC is setup incorrectly or if certain conditions are met.
From an accounting standpoint, GAAP doesn't much care if you're a private company with shareholders or if you're a private company with employee-owners. There are tax nuances and accounting for equity differences, but the books are mostly the same animal.
