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

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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