Socialism: keep the co-op bank from drifting toward only the safest co-ops

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
2026-09-24 21:07:30 -06:00
parent 19bba58f7c
commit a9efaa2725
7 changed files with 98 additions and 5 deletions
@@ -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. If a co-op goes bankrupt, only another co-op can buy it whole, and its workers get a real chance to be that buyer. That needs an amendment to federal bankruptcy law, drafted here. [The Lock](the-lock.md), [When a Locked Co-op Goes Bankrupt](bankruptcy.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 pilot can't show whether co-ops lift pay at other employers. Even after a pass, a sector big enough for that is decades away nationally. So growth comes in capped stages, and that effect gets its own test in a few local markets. [The Test](the-test.md), [The Pilot, in Numbers](pilot-spec.md), [Help Before the First Loan](before-launch.md), [After a Pass: How Big, How Fast](scale.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. Part of the loan money is set aside for co-ops in lower-paid work, so the bank can't drift toward only the safest co-ops, and the verdict has to say which kinds of co-ops it covers. The pilot can't show whether co-ops lift pay at other employers. Even after a pass, a sector big enough for that is decades away nationally. So growth comes in capped stages, and that effect gets its own test in a few local markets. [The Test](the-test.md), [The Pilot, in Numbers](pilot-spec.md), [Help Before the First Loan](before-launch.md), [Who the Bank Lends To](who-gets-loans.md), [After a Pass: How Big, How Fast](scale.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. A fixed formula, not lobbyists, decides which low-paid work gets public help. [Ownership and the Floor](the-floor.md) and [Who Decides What's Essential](essential-work.md)