Make the lock on bank-funded co-ops hold up, and close its back doors (the-lock.md).
Why "forever" isn't strange:
Precedents: Britain's community interest companies (a permanent statutory lock, 37,000+ companies), steward-owned firms (Ecosia's golden share), and US nonprofit conversions (Blue Cross of California's $3.2B to foundations).
The failure the lock prevents: UK building societies that demutualised.
An honest note that here the lock is a condition of a public loan.
How the lock is made to hold:
A veto-only lock share held by an independent lock-holder. It must approve deals that follow the lock, and it steps aside when it has a conflict.
Articles that can change only with the lock share's consent, plus statute.
A backstop: if the lock is ever broken, the value still goes to the federation fund.
The real legal risk is bankruptcy law, which only Congress can fix.
Closing the back doors:
Selling off pieces of the business, or buying the assets and hiring the workers, counts as a sale.
Subsidiaries are locked too.
The limits on outside investors last forever.
Bankruptcy: Argentina's 2011 rule, adapted. Only co-ops can bid for the whole business, with open bidding above an appraisal floor. Other rules stop insiders buying back their own failure cheaply, or one buyer assembling the business piece by piece. The page admits what this costs creditors.
What the lock costs, stated plainly.
Other updates: open problems, the constitution page and the index.
Every change went through adversarial review from five worldviews. Softening the lock itself ("lock the value, not the form", the Italian model) departs from the foundation, so it's logged privately for the author's decision rather than made. The site code is unchanged, and the pages stay unlisted and noindex.
Make the lock on bank-funded co-ops hold up, and close its back doors (`the-lock.md`).
- **Why "forever" isn't strange:**
- Precedents: Britain's community interest companies (a permanent statutory lock, 37,000+ companies), steward-owned firms (Ecosia's golden share), and US nonprofit conversions (Blue Cross of California's $3.2B to foundations).
- The failure the lock prevents: UK building societies that demutualised.
- An honest note that here the lock is a condition of a public loan.
- **How the lock is made to hold:**
- A veto-only lock share held by an independent lock-holder. It must approve deals that follow the lock, and it steps aside when it has a conflict.
- Articles that can change only with the lock share's consent, plus statute.
- A backstop: if the lock is ever broken, the value still goes to the federation fund.
- The real legal risk is bankruptcy law, which only Congress can fix.
- **Closing the back doors:**
- Selling off pieces of the business, or buying the assets and hiring the workers, counts as a sale.
- Subsidiaries are locked too.
- The limits on outside investors last forever.
- **Bankruptcy:** Argentina's 2011 rule, adapted. Only co-ops can bid for the whole business, with open bidding above an appraisal floor. Other rules stop insiders buying back their own failure cheaply, or one buyer assembling the business piece by piece. The page admits what this costs creditors.
- **What the lock costs**, stated plainly.
- **Other updates:** open problems, the constitution page and the index.
Every change went through adversarial review from five worldviews. Softening the lock itself ("lock the value, not the form", the Italian model) departs from the foundation, so it's logged privately for the author's decision rather than made. The site code is unchanged, and the pages stay unlisted and noindex.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Explain why a permanent lock has precedent (UK CICs, steward ownership,
US nonprofit conversions) and what it prevents (building-society
demutualisation). Enforce it in layers: an independent veto-only lock
share, articles, statute, and a backstop that sends the value to the
federation fund if the lock is ever broken. Treat piecemeal asset sales,
hire-backs and subsidiaries as sales; adapt Argentina's bankruptcy rule,
noting it needs a Bankruptcy Code amendment; state the lock's costs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add savings-guarantee.md: a co-op-funded insurance pool covering final
unpaid wages, former members' payouts and a protected slice of current
accounts, priced for near-zero recovery by an independent actuary, with
a credit-union-style deposit, phased coverage, pro-rata payment when
short, and rules against phantom profits, early quitting and fraud
rings. Co-ops may no longer take member deposits or sell members bonds.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add "Making It Last": how public programs get killed (Ex-Im, CDFI Fund,
GGRF, NCCB) and survive (Bank of North Dakota, electric co-ops, Farm
Credit), and rules that assume any president can replace the board
after Trump v. Slaughter. Lending standards fixed in law, a "not tested"
verdict if good applicants are turned away, no freeze from board
vacancies, honest limits on where the money sits, and federal test with
state copies.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add buyouts.md: owners who choose to sell a healthy firm to its workers
can borrow on a separate $100M track with its own test (money plus a
pay floor), a capped independent price, a seller note that shares the
risk, a vote of the whole workforce and the lock. Restate the total
worst case as $450M and answer open problem #12.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add conservice.md: the company as it is (from public sources only),
the same business founded as a locked co-op, what the profit split
could mean at its scale under labeled assumptions, whether it would
have grown, and who would have received less. Link it from the
thesis, worker ownership and the index.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add high-turnover.md: in home care, a 12-month probation and the
three-quarters rule could fail a co-op doing everything right. Make
membership automatic after a short probation, take the buy-in from
profit shares rather than pay, count agency hours and push-outs, and
phase the rule in. Align the lock, the pilot's safeguards and measures,
worker ownership, the index and open problems.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add pay.md: pay bands open to every worker, a ratio each co-op must
choose and measure honestly, a double majority for high pay and for
raises to jobs most members hold, and no one voting alone on their own
pay. Stop the reserve rule from charging co-ops for raising the bottom,
and close its gaps for perks, non-members and related companies.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
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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Make the lock on bank-funded co-ops hold up, and close its back doors (
the-lock.md).Every change went through adversarial review from five worldviews. Softening the lock itself ("lock the value, not the form", the Italian model) departs from the foundation, so it's logged privately for the author's decision rather than made. The site code is unchanged, and the pages stay unlisted and noindex.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx