professional procrastinator. computer enjoyer. 1-800-didge.
OK so what if there was just a mutual aid mutual fund. Or some kinda fund where money gets invested to make more money but also a bit gets taken out in case someone needs something.
So like, a bunch of people contribute to it, but I suppose you'd have to be vetted to make sure you're not just using the money to buy NFTs or something.
This is going to sound like an oversimplification but you've just invented insurance (in a world where insurance actually covers things)
I could write a really long and annoying response to this! but it's like 2am so I'll just settle for a bit long and annoying.
David Graeber's "Debt: the first 5000 years" is kind of all about this: in his accounting mutual aid is just what happens when you have a small, high-trust community, and the invention of things like "money" and "lending" are attempts to preserve those things when you have a big interconnected society being tied together by some kind of nasty capital s State.
But like, barring The Revolution, there are some examples with e.g. union health insurance, or credit unions. iirc sag-aftra insurance is structured such that you get your insurance through the union but you have to do X amount of acting hours in the year to qualify, which is unfortunate. And then like, credit unions are meant to lend money at favorable terms to members - the example I'm thinking of would be all the us gov credit unions fronting people's salaries during furloughs, but equally, you need a specific job to qualify for those kinds of things. An unfortunate consequence of having lost any sense of community outside of smallish niche workplaces, i guess
