'A Better World' - ideas, successes, failures, historical, etc.

Not sure this is the best 'thread' for this topic... but!!   My idea is gathering stuff like this... what works, has worked, hasn't worked, might work, etc.  Ideas! and some history.

How about 1) actual communities that might be using alternative systems, and succeeding... or, not failing?  (I'm thinking of Mondragon and other cooperative type outfits), and 2) pie-in-the-sky speculation (ala anarchist types, etc.)   I could see discussion of Schumacher's 'Small Is Beautiful', Wallace's plans, employee-owned businesses (Bob's Mill, King Arthur Flour, that british supermaket chain, etc. ) I'd like to really see some history about past attempts,and how/why they failed... or didn't?  (Of the two oldest '60's communes', one is surviving and the other is fragmenting.)  There seems to be so little 'memory' in our society.

Canadians (Jarrett?) might know of the 'Mincome' experiment in Canada in the 70's...and what the results were.  (Also of interest might be the 'subak' grassroots system for managing rice growing in Bali.  And, regarding whether human nature can be trusted.. I'd recommend 'A Paradise Built in Hell', based on actual community responses to real-world disasters.)

Food for thought - I just read a long overview of how Tader Joe's makes so much more money per square foot (beating all the big supermarkets, etc).. i.e., investing in lots of very friendly well-paid employees; no advertising, social media, etc.; limiting choices; novelty; no membership cards et al; no middlemen;  etc.  The EXACT opposite of all the profit-maximization manipulations of the big boys.  I'm not offering it as a 'blueprint' (btw, true-believers give me the willies), but in the interest of 'alternative ideas' (desperately needed in this world, I think.. ergo, permaculture, regen ag, organics, etc, etc.)
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/trader-joes/

Another idea - 'Open