[vegancap]

I guess we have slightly divergent definitions. My definition being voluntary exchange and private ownership of commodity and labor. I also have nothing against democratic cooperatives, just as long as I'm free to carry on working in a market economy elsewhere ;)

[asgard1024]

The important question is what you're trying to define. Are you trying to define existing system or some your ideal?

If you're trying to define existing system, I would disagree that exchange is voluntary here, unless you play with words and say people are free to die of hunger. (Also it's not clear what "private ownership of labor" means.)

If you're as capitalism designating some other ideal system (based on your values), for example anarchocapitalism, you should be aware that these always failed too, sometimes even more horribly than attempts for communism. But then anyway, why would you attempt to call this ideal "capitalism"?

This is actually the basic contradiction in your thinking. You say "the system we have is not really a capitalism", so the problems (that many people see) are not problems of capitalism. But then why do you want to call it capitalism, if not as the reference to what we have today?

[shkkmo]

Except your definition is wrong.

Why can't you and a democratic cooperative operate in the same free market?

[vegancap]

I didn't say we couldn't at all, I personally would like to work in a market economy. Not in a cooperative, but similarly I would want others to have the freedom to work in a cooperative should they wish to.

[ende]

Democratic cooperatives and market economies are not mutually exclusive at all.