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Money, Finance & Banking Issues

Since co-operative socialism abolishes rent interest and profits and decides a much reduced level of income inequality, the question of the use of money. in a world of co-operative socialism becomes important.

The most obvious solution to the question of banking and finance for co-operatives. Is for banks to be effectively the common purse filled up by the community as its market-based social economy co-operatives generate. financial surplus: which capitalism would call its profits, so that the financial service industry becomes a benefit to wealth creation.

Accordingly one model of a banking system would be a collection of solidarity co-operatives where the community decides through a mixture of grant and living incomes to everyone, and for those co-operatives to operate on an interest-free and not-for-profit basis.

Eventually of course since the use of money will disappear, these banking systems will become redundant.

One possible future development for the banking system would be as part of the international support which a nation-state gives to the generation of a global Co-operative commonweal. In such a state if a country which feels that it needs extra support from countries which are more favourably placed, it could make an appeal to the national banking systems for financial support on a grant not loan basis.

That leads us to the whole question of international solidarity work which will be part of the next section.

.... Workplace Issues