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Socialism: test help before the first loan, and ask founders for a stake

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Add before-launch.md: a founding lottery testing whether serious
pre-launch help (a founder's stipend, a feasibility study, legal setup)
creates more co-ops that last, measured independently of the bank, and
a 5% founder stake payable in verified unpaid work. Fund it from the
loan budget, and correct the pilot's growth arithmetic.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
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jheaps
2026-09-24 06:31:46 -06:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 1f297c244d
commit 8305c72843
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JoshHeaps.Net/Content/Socialism/index.md
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@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ This model doesn't buy, seize or convert anyone's company. Instead it builds new
- **A small public bank lends to worker co-ops.** It charges market rates, so it only succeeds if co-ops can really compete. Its whole job is to be willing to lend to a kind of company other banks won't. Spain, Italy and the US have all tried versions of this, and the pilot is built around what went right and wrong. [The Bank](the-bank.md) and [Has This Been Tried?](precedents.md)
- **Owners who want to sell to their workers can.** The bank lends for these sales on a separate track, with its own $100 million and its own test. Only healthy firms qualify, there's no new tax break, the price is capped at an independent appraisal, the seller shares the risk, and the whole workforce votes. [When an Owner Wants to Sell to the Workers](buyouts.md)
- **Co-ops funded this way stay co-ops forever.** They can't be sold to conventional owners, and members can't vote to cash out what earlier members built. An independent lock-holder can veto any attempt, including selling the business off piece by piece. [The Lock](the-lock.md)
- **It runs as an honest experiment.** A one-time $350 million pilot aims to fund about 400 new co-ops. The success measures are published before the first loan. If, after twelve years, co-ops stay open about as well as similar conventional firms while paying their members fairly, and the bank earned at least what Treasury bonds would have, Congress votes on growing it. If not, it shuts down automatically. It's built so that a hostile government can't quietly freeze it or rig the result, though Congress can always repeal it. [The Test](the-test.md), [The Pilot, in Numbers](pilot-spec.md) and [Making It Last](durability.md)
- **It runs as an honest experiment.** A one-time $350 million pilot aims to fund about 400 new co-ops. The success measures are published before the first loan. If, after twelve years, co-ops stay open about as well as similar conventional firms while paying their members fairly, and the bank earned at least what Treasury bonds would have, Congress votes on growing it. If not, it shuts down automatically. It's built so that a hostile government can't quietly freeze it or rig the result, though Congress can always repeal it. It also tests, by lottery, whether serious help before launch gets more co-ops started. [The Test](the-test.md), [The Pilot, in Numbers](pilot-spec.md), [Help Before the First Loan](before-launch.md) and [Making It Last](durability.md)
- **Co-ops back each other up.** They pool part of their profits into a shared fund. If one fails, its workers are moved into others instead of being left with nothing. [The Federation](federation.md)
- **Nobody is left behind by low-margin work.** Owning a company doesn't help much when there's barely any profit to own, so a strong floor covers the rest. [Ownership and the Floor](the-floor.md)