I’ve known a few in the U.S., and even worked at one. Maybe people won’t become billionaires doing this, but why wait for a complete overhaul of society to implement more of what are good ideas.

I’d also like to see more childcare co-ops, or community shared pre-k schools. Wheres the movement to build communities and pool resources around these business models in the US? In short, co-ops are the closest socialist/communist business model that’s actually implemented in the U.S., so why are more leftists not doing this?

  • @[email protected]
    2•3 days ago

    I have yet to find any country in Europe or South America with US-style credit unions

    Huh? Maybe I don’t know what a US-style credit union is, but the German-language countries have large banking Genossenschaften (cooperatives), often called People’s bank. Many of them have origins in farmers lending each other money.

    I don’t know about Fennoscandia, but it would surprise me if there aren’t equivalents, given the cooperationist history in very local economies.

    • @[email protected]
      3•2 days ago

      Not sure about others in fennoscandia, but at least Finland has multiple large co-ops. One of the largest banks, OP ( literally named co-op bank) is a co-op which many own a part of. Many of my friends are part of the co-op.

      Also, Finland’s largest retail conglomerate (with 48.3 % market share of retail in Finland) is a consumer co-op, which is also causing a very difficult situation for all other businesses in retail, as they’re able to undercut practically everyone since they have less of a profit incentive. 2.4 million people have a membership, which is quite a sizable amount in a country of under 6 million (though I’m not sure if the number includes Estonians as well)

    • @[email protected]English
      5•3 days ago

      Yeah, I’ve lived in Germany and those are terrible. Most charge monthly fees.

      Some waive the fees if you have direct deposit or a minimum balance, but if you loose your job or leave the country for a decade, they’ll fuck their members pretty hard

      Credit unions in the US are nonprofit banks that are coops. Everyone who is a member votes on what to do with the excess revenue, which usually gets paid as dividends back to the members (everyone with a bank account) or gets reinvested to cover cool services like ATM refunds (as in, they give you money for fees charged by other banks), free travel/phone insurance, etc.

      Its curious that the idea of a credit union was born in Germany but modern German credit unions suck