Comment on Why don’t more people start profit-sharing companies or co-ops?

jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ 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.

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  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

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

    Credit unions 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, free travel/phone insurance, etc.

    Its curious that the ides of a credit union was born in Germany but their credit unions suck

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    • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Yeah, they’re for-profit banks and not everyone is a member who has an account.

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  • antimidas@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ 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 chain (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)

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• SmoothOperator@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  They’re also very popular in Denmark.

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  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Do they have monthly fees? If not, I wouldn’t say they exist

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    • lud@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Our regular banks in Sweden do have yearly fees, does that count? (No obviously not)

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• MrMakabar@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  American banks offering credit card have the highest profit margin of ANY US industry. In most other countries cash is still king. Hence credit unions in those countries need to charge fees and offer worse services.

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  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    If EU “credit unions”:

    1. Are not nonprofits,
    2. Everyone with a bank account isn’t an equal member and voter in meetings,
    3. All members aren’t given the opportunity to present proposals and decide how to spend excess revenue

    …then it seems like that’s the problem

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    • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Credit unions are a type of cooperative bank. The key is that anybody who opens a bank account becomes a member automatically. That is not the case for other types of cooperative banks.

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      • jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        What you’re describing is not a cooperative.

        The definition of a cooperative is where they’re Democratic and decisions are made collectively by all members.

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