If they got the same incentives offered to businesses, that would be interesting.

Coops are fairly common in Europe, mostly in agro-food and related areas.

They're actually better at innovation for their market segments, because they can make long-term plans for expansion instead of being hamstrung by the demands of ridiculous short-term marketing-driven hype bubbles.

But if you want to profit from frothy get-rich-quick hype and don't care if this year's unicorn is next year's "Our incredible adventure comes to an end", they're definitely not for you.

> Nobody cares if they're buying from a collective or a conventional business.

Before buying, you need to startup and produce.

> Are you saying they should get special government incentives not available to businesses?

Its the other way around. They are not eligible for incentives that are available to traditional corporations. They cannot issue traditional equity. There are also no equivalent cooperative-friendly structure like a Delaware C corporation which allows for friendly taxation and non-liability for the debts and legal obligations of the corporation. Difficult to apply R&D Tax Credit like corporations since it cannot carry forward credits due to legal constraints. Cannot claim Payroll Offset like startups do, etc.

The system in the US simply does not give incentives to cooperatives to the same extent that it facilitates corporations.