Posted by William Spademan on November 25, 2009 at 22:59:21:
In Reply to: Re: community-based economic democracy posted by Correspondence Committee on November 25, 2009 at 12:23:57:
Dear Correspondence Committee,
Good points. I think we need to make a distinction between two ways that the term "profit" is commonly used. I am a sole proprietor. The difference between what people pay me and what my business expenses are could be called "profit". That's what I use to buy food, etc. Nothing wrong with that.
On the other hand, investment income (unearned income) is also called "profit". That type of profit is a root cause of poverty, as described in this article: http://s2be.org/economicevils.php
The problems with profit are related to three questions:
"Who gets them?"
"Did they deserve it?" and
"Where did the profit come from?"
In the case of common good banks, profits go to the community, for the common good. More of the profits come from wealthy people than from poor people. Does the community deserve to benefit? You decide.
We do not talk about overthrowing Capitalism because (1) you are right, that tends to alienate a lot of people and (2) we are really talking about a variation on capitalism in which communities (rather than wealthy individuals) control capital for the common good (rather than for private profit). Nonetheless, yes, we are talking about real change.