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?
They’re extremely popular in the US, especially in banking (credit unions). I have yet to find any country in Europe or South America with US-style credit unions and it drives me crazy
They’re also very popular in Denmark.
Do they have monthly fees? If not, I wouldn’t say they exist
Our regular banks in Sweden do have yearly fees, does that count? (No obviously not)
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.
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
Yeah, they’re for-profit banks and not everyone is a member who has an account.
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)