Socialism: capital accounts, the founder problem, and the horizon problem #124

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jheaps merged 4 commits from feature/socialism into master 2026-09-23 16:33:31 -06:00
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Two iterations of the /socialism model that weren't in #123. #123 was merged just before the first of them was pushed.

Member capital accounts and the founder problem (56c041f)

  • New page, capital-accounts.md: how members build savings from profits in a firm that can never be sold. It covers the profit split, the cash share, the interest formula, payouts with no penalty for leaving, and the one-year-of-pay cap. It adds a solvency test and other protections (Fagor and Enron are the warning cases), plus what a member ends up with across four kinds of business.
  • founder-problem.md rewritten:
    • A discounted comparison of co-op and conventional founders: in the success case the co-op founder gets between a fifth and a twentieth as much.
    • Evidence on risk from Hall & Woodward and Hamilton.
    • Bounded founder tools, with no founder vetoes.
  • Pilot pages: the pilot now measures who founded each co-op and how profits are shared inside it, and guards against founders paying themselves first.

The horizon problem (4e686aa)

  • New page, the-long-run.md: the Furubotn-Pejovich worry. French and Italian evidence finds no underinvestment where co-ops must keep a reserve. The plywood co-ops' tradable shares are the case for why this model doesn't use them.
  • Four rules:
    • The reserve takes its share of pay above the going rate. The going rate is the higher of the metro median for the occupation and a living wage. It's checked job by job and counts total pay.
    • Gains from selling assets go to the reserve.
    • Qualifying development spending (as defined by IAS 38) can be spread over up to five years. If the project is abandoned, the cost is charged back to the members who chose it.
    • Accounts earn Treasury+2 only while they're at risk.
  • Other updates: capital accounts, worker ownership, the pilot's measures (investment and its return), open problems and the index.

Every change went through adversarial review from five worldviews. The site code is unchanged, and the pages stay unlisted and noindex.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx

Two iterations of the /socialism model that weren't in #123. #123 was merged just before the first of them was pushed. ## Member capital accounts and the founder problem (56c041f) - **New page, `capital-accounts.md`:** how members build savings from profits in a firm that can never be sold. It covers the profit split, the cash share, the interest formula, payouts with no penalty for leaving, and the one-year-of-pay cap. It adds a solvency test and other protections (Fagor and Enron are the warning cases), plus what a member ends up with across four kinds of business. - **`founder-problem.md` rewritten:** - A discounted comparison of co-op and conventional founders: in the success case the co-op founder gets between a fifth and a twentieth as much. - Evidence on risk from Hall & Woodward and Hamilton. - Bounded founder tools, with no founder vetoes. - **Pilot pages:** the pilot now measures who founded each co-op and how profits are shared inside it, and guards against founders paying themselves first. ## The horizon problem (4e686aa) - **New page, `the-long-run.md`:** the Furubotn-Pejovich worry. French and Italian evidence finds no underinvestment where co-ops must keep a reserve. The plywood co-ops' tradable shares are the case for why this model doesn't use them. - **Four rules:** - The reserve takes its share of pay above the going rate. The going rate is the higher of the metro median for the occupation and a living wage. It's checked job by job and counts total pay. - Gains from selling assets go to the reserve. - Qualifying development spending (as defined by IAS 38) can be spread over up to five years. If the project is abandoned, the cost is charged back to the members who chose it. - Accounts earn Treasury+2 only while they're at risk. - **Other updates:** capital accounts, worker ownership, the pilot's measures (investment and its return), open problems and the index. Every change went through adversarial review from five worldviews. 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
jheaps added 3 commits 2026-09-23 15:32:33 -06:00
Add capital-accounts.md (profit split, cash share, formula interest,
payout rules, solvency test, savings protections, worked outcomes).
Rewrite founder-problem.md with a discounted co-op vs conventional
comparison, the risk evidence (Hall-Woodward, Hamilton), and bounded
founder tools. Add founder-related measures and safeguards to the
pilot pages, and renumber open problems.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
PR #123 was merged before 56c041f was pushed; bring it back in.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
Add the-long-run.md: the Furubotn-Pejovich worry, the French and
Italian evidence, the plywood "failure of success", and four rules:
the reserve takes its share of pay above the going rate, asset-sale
gains go to the reserve, qualifying development can be spread over
five years with abandonment charged to those who chose it, and
accounts earn Treasury+2 only while at risk. Update capital accounts,
worker ownership, the pilot's measures, open problems and the index.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
jheaps added 1 commit 2026-09-23 16:02:29 -06:00
Add precedents.md: Mondragon's Caja Laboral, the US National Consumer
Cooperative Bank, Italy's Coopfond and Marcora Law, each with what went
wrong. Add a support lottery to the pilot (intensive help for a random
half, advisers walled off from lending, all help counted against the
bank), count distressed mergers as closures, and replace unsourced
precedent claims on the bank and argument pages.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QWPs69B8nQZjtPEUXMKzZx
jheaps merged commit 7cc964380b into master 2026-09-23 16:33:31 -06:00
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Reference: jheaps/JoshHeaps.Net#124