ProjectSmile

BRIEF: Concentration of wealth, corporate domination, war, poverty, hunger, environmental devastation.

From Website:

Common good banks are designed to save the world from corporate domination and give control back to the people.

Here's how (follow links for details):

Why local democratic economics?

Economics. The very structure of society undermines all our good work. For-profit investments are rapidly destroying the planet and the well-being of everyone: degrading the environment, fostering wars, creating social and economic injustice, hunger, poverty and disease.

The world is beautiful. Life is good. Millions of people are working passionately for an even better world, in countless creative ways. Individuals and organizations -- both nonprofit and for-profit -- are actively addressing local and global challenges in human relations, the environment, health, education, housing, food, energy, technology, and every other field imaginable.

So what's the problem? Why do we need democratic economics? Two reasons: economics and government.

Why? Investors expect a percentage return on their investments. Any steady percentage growth (exponential growth) becomes harder and harder to sustain. Corporations, required by their charters to maximize return on investment, must become increasingly ruthless to maintain a constant return to investors.

Big Government is a problem too. Representative democracy with simple majority vote is a miserably weak form of democracy, easily subverted by moneyed special interests. Corporations routinely "buy" elections and favorable legislation. Minorities are left voiceless. Voters typically vote for who they think can win rather than who they want, and that's the only decision they have a say in!

Participatory Democracy as a Solution. Since our current economic system and governments are the fundamental problem, one straightforward solution is to create a new democratic economic system. Common good banks are designed to be just such a system -- sensible, compassionate, decentralized -- a fast-growing seed for the world of our dreams, shifting our priorities from profits to peace and prosperity for all.

The common good bank™ democracy involves members in every step of the decision process and guarantees that the decisions made are what nearly everyone most wants. Even small minorities can have an impact on policies and spending. Since anyone can vote directly on any issue, there are no election campaigns and no venue for corporate lobbies, leaving little chance for political corruption.

Overview / How is it different intro:

Common good banks will do all the usual things that banks do. But a common good bank goes way beyond that. Beginning with our shared visions for a better world, the common good bank design evolved as a system of four new organizations collaborating with local businesses and community organizations.  [DETAILS]

This bank system is designed expressly for economic justice, sustainability and strong local economies. Designed to be good for you, good for your business, good for the community and good for the world, so that we can all flourish, as communities, even in difficult economic times.  [DETAILS]

Limitations / What makes common good banks different than credit unions?

if so different, why not form credit unions instead, with the same purpose and features? surely there are more benefits to operating a non-profit banking system rather than a for-profit banking system that donates all it's profits to non-profits. it just seems asinine to try and fund non-profit and community supporting endeavors via for-profit industries, when non-profits already exist that are capable of refocusing their already functional economic systems toward the same aims.

this seems to me another attempt to maintain our already failing economic system rather than adapt wholly to a different and truly sustainable system that is actually already quietly overtaking the current failing one.

it seems to me what we need to do it is refocus the work of already functioning organizations so that they are intentionally and openly working to replace the failing ones: that is to say, openly educate people about the differences between non-profit democratically operated organizations and the current non-democratically operated non-profits and for-profit organizations in order to bolster current membership and subscription, and then encourage non-democratically operated non-profit organizations to reform themselves as democratic ones, as well as use funds provided by those organizations to start more democratically operated organizations in other fields as needed; such as the production of automobiles, insurance, entertainment media, et cetera.

a good example of the benefits of such action would be the difference that would be seen between the current attempts of small for-profit organizations to develop and produce environmentally savvy automobiles. either their vehicles are expensive and therefor kept out of the reach of those who need them most (teslamotors.com), and/or they're production and sales is serious limited do to the financial limitations and size of the small for-profit organization and therefore also kept out of the hands of those who needs them most (aptera.com).

a non-profit automobile manufacturer supported by the national credit union association and it's many members, and their members, could be granted a virtually limitless availabilty of start up capital to use; which could then be used to develope a small environmentally sound vehicle that could be produced at 50 seperate manufacturing plants, one for each state. these plants could be developed near major cities to limit the need for the transportation of already manufatured cars across entire nations, as well as allow for the development of maintainence garages and recycling plants at the production facilities, which would eventually allow them to become fairly self sustained production facilies. they could even take in old cars from other manufacturers to use their parts in the production of new cars, and in turn cover a large portion of the cost of manufacturing the new car, thereby lowering the cost for the consumer; which could also be lowered further by providing exceedingly fair leasing and purchasing options do to their non-profit status.

you get the idea, the possibilities are endless, why hinder yourself?

"With a good teamwork, together we can build towns and factories so that many people can work, share and help each other. In this way, we can end poverty."

- Margaret Megan Suhardi, Indonesia, age 8
(from esa.un.org)

Any community can have its own Community Division, a nearly independent local common good bank, with investment priorities and distribution of profits guided democratically by the local depositors. You can organize a Community Division easily, even now before the first common good bank exists.

Wanna be a Community Division Organizer? Here's what to do:

#1 Give us a call for starters at 413-628-3336, so we can know each other and work as a team.

#2 Promote the concept. Tell people about it. Discuss it with them. Get them to sign up or even help. See the Promotional Materials page for a complete list of downloadable resources. (Any other promotional materials used in organizing must be pre-approved.)

You will need about 65 sign-ups to end up with 50 actual depositors when the first common good bank opens. To see how many you have so far, enter your postal code here:

Here are some specific suggestions for promotion. If you want a print shop to do any of the printing, cutting, folding or laminating: email some of these instructions to the print shop.

• Use the "Tell Someone" link (at the bottom of any page) to send a description of the project to people you know.
• Carry Common Good Finance handout cards and hand them out to people you meet, who might be interested. Call if you want personalized cards.
• Set up a display in a high-foot-traffic location, such as your town's main street or the entrance to a co-op food store. Hand out cards or flyers or inserts. Print up a few sign-up sheets and get people to sign up on the spot (make sure they print their email address legibly).
  
  Better yet, if you have a laptop with internet access, have people sign up online on the spot. Here's a picture of what the display looks like, attached to a standard display board with two-sided tape. You will need to stabilize it somehow if you have a windy location.
• Share the common good bank video slideshow through youtube or show it to people on your computer (download).
• Meet with local community officials, business owners and nonprofit administrators to enlist their support. Work together to make it happen. In particular, find a business (at least one) to serve as a "Virtual ATM".
• Invite organizations to partner with us to get common good banks started (mostly this means helping to promote the idea). Get the organization to send out a Press Release: PRINT MEDIA | WEBSITES | EMAIL.

Common Good Finance Corporation
creating common good banks™, democratic economics for a sustainable world

Potential Social Return on $1  (Click for detailed Pdf)

Summary:

A million to lend and a million to spend for the common good FOR EACH DOLLAR
INVESTED. That potential social return could make common good banks a very attractive
investment opportunity for community-minded investors.

Please visit website for more info/ contact: http://www.commongoodbank.com/

Comments:

we play Q&A games on banks people need at http://www.futurecapitalism.tv/id48.html how would we translate commonalities between knowledge of http://microcreditsummit.org and Bangladesh and epicentres of CGB? chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk

here's a good question:

"what makes common good banks different than credit unions?

and, if different, why not form credit unions instead, with the same purpose and features? surely there are more benefits to operating a non-profit banking system rather than a for-profit banking system that donates all it's profits to non-profits. it just seems asinine to try and fund non-profit and community supporting endeavors via for-profit industries, when non-profits already exist that are capable of refocusing their already functional economic systems toward the same aims.

this seems to me another attempt to maintain our already failing economic system rather than adapt wholly to a different and truly sustainable system that is actually already quietly overtaking the current failing one.

it seems to me what we need to do it is refocus the work of already functioning organizations so that they are intentionally and openly working to replace the failing ones: that is to say, openly educate people about the differences between non-profit democratically operated organizations and the current non-democratically operated non-profits and for-profit organizations in order to bolster current membership and subscription, and then encourage non-democratically operated non-profit organizations to reform themselves as democratic ones, as well as use funds provided by those organizations to start more democratically operated organizations in other fields as needed; such as the production of automobiles, insurance, entertainment media, et cetera.

a good example of the benefits of such action would be the difference that would be seen between the current attempts of small for-profit organizations to develop and produce environmentally savvy automobiles. either their vehicles are expensive and therefor kept out of the reach of those who need them most (teslamotors.com), and/or they're production and sales is serious limited do to the financial limitations and size of the small for-profit organization and therefore also kept out of the hands of those who needs them most (aptera.com).

a non-profit automobile manufacturer supported by the national credit union association and it's many members, and their members, could be granted a virtually limitless availabilty of start up capital to use; which could then be used to develope a small environmentally sound vehicle that could be produced at 50 seperate manufacturing plants, one for each state. these plants could be developed near major cities to limit the need for the transportation of already manufatured cars across entire nations, as well as allow for the development of maintainence garages and recycling plants at the production facilities, which would eventually allow them to become fairly self sustained production facilies. they could even take in old cars from other manufacturers to use their parts in the production of new cars, and in turn cover a large portion of the cost of manufacturing the new car, thereby lowering the cost for the consumer; which could also be lowered further by providing exceedingly fair leasing and purchasing options do to their non-profit status.

you get the idea, the possibilities are endless, why hinder yourself?" - Rue C Koegel