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
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ That also means a roughly 10% chance of shutting down a pilot that was actually

 That creates exactly the pressure that sank Venezuela: an institution with a target lowers its standards to hit it. So:

- **No lending targets.** Nobody is paid, promoted or judged on loan volume.
+- **No lending targets.** Nobody is paid, promoted or judged on loan volume. Part of the loan money is set aside for co-ops in lower-paid work, but that's money made available, not a target ([Who the Bank Lends To](who-gets-loans.md)).
 - **If good applications fall short, the lending window stretches** (up to year 8) instead of standards dropping. The final review moves back by the same amount. That rule is fixed now.
 - **A shortfall is itself a result.** If good co-op applicants don't show up even when financing is available, that's evidence for the "co-ops are rare because they're hard, not because they're unfunded" explanation, and it gets reported that way.

@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ A useful yardstick: among the SBA's mature loan groups from 1992 to 2004, loans

 **Measures that are published but don't decide:** jobs created (with growth compared with matched firms, spin-offs, and expansions members voted down; see [When Growing Means Sharing](growth.md#5-measuring-it)), wages at the bottom and top and the gap between them, the share of pay above the going rate, how often higher-paid members leave, pay gaps by gender and race within the same job ([Who Sets the Pay](pay.md)), revenue per worker (a rough measure of productivity) and value added per hour worked, followed as co-ops grow ([Does Sharing the Profit Mean Less Effort?](free-riding.md#measuring-it)), how long members stay, injury rates, and the bank's default and recovery rates. Also:

- **Who got loans.** Approval rates and loan terms by the founders' race, gender and personal wealth. If collateral-based lending quietly shuts out the people co-ops mostly serve, it should show.
+- **Who got loans.** Approval rates and loan terms by the founders' race, gender and personal wealth. If collateral-based lending quietly shuts out the people co-ops mostly serve, it should show. Results are also reported for co-ops in lower-paid work and for first-time owners without much wealth ([Who the Bank Lends To](who-gets-loans.md)).
 - **Who gets the profits inside each co-op.** Profit shares, founding shares and membership approvals by race and gender, so that an in-group of early members can't quietly take most of the pool.
 - **Who founded them.** Founders' previous earnings and work histories, using linked government records where they're available, compared with the founders of the matched firms. If the strongest founders stay away ([The Founder Problem](founder-problem.md)), this is where it shows.
 - **Investment.** Spending on equipment, buildings and development per worker, how much of each year's profit is kept in the business, and the return those investments earn, compared with the matched firms. If co-ops starve themselves of capital, as economists have long predicted ([Investing for the Long Run](the-long-run.md)), this is where it shows.