C. WHAT IS THE MUTUALIST VISION OF THE FUTURE?
IS MUTUALISM OPEN TO COEXISTENCE WITH OTHER FORMS OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION WITHIN A LIBERTARIAN FRAMEWORK? A without
adjectives, Jesse Walker, Garner, Nozick, SEK3 on Georgias, etc.
Main problem would be issue of neighboring communities with different standards of land tenure. For example, dissidents
in a community with Georgist or mutualist land tenure might attempt to enforce Lockean landlordism by appealing to the defense
agencies in a neighboring anarcho-capitalist community (Lloyd!). However, most right-libs are not fire breathers in the sense
of trolling for right-libertarian dissidents in communities based on non-anarchocap principles, and would probably follow
a live and let live policy. E.g. speculation on treaties between protection agencies that would exclude protection from members
who deliberately flouted each other's customs--no protection for any member of the Grateful Dead defense collective who committed
adultery with the wife of a God's Lightning militia member.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION?
Every member a share-holder. Every share-holder a voter. All membership voluntary. All members receive a share of profits,
not a minority. All organizations democratically controlled by the membership. All organizations human-sized and locally controlled.
Economy of scale practiced through federalism and not top-down hierarchy.
Problems with Mondragon system. Comments from shadoweconomy
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO POOR TO PAY FEES TO MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES? WILL THEY BE LEFT OUT BY THEIR POVERTY?
This was the major flaw of the old mutualism. In the 19th and early 20th centuries about half the population was too poor
to subscribe to mutualist medical insurance, unemployment insurance, etc. Thus the state stepped in and provided these services
and in the process eliminated most of the mutualist systems. Today, at least in the developed world, people are vastly more
wealthy and the overwhelming majority could afford to pay their fees. The minority that couldn't? An intermediate step between
the present statist system of social services and a fully mutualist system could involve the government giving vouchers to
poor people who could then apply these to the mutual of their choice. A Solidarity Fund could be set up and people could donate
to it. The fund would also provide vouchers for the poor. Hopefully, in time, the state vouchers could be eliminated and the
aid system function purely on voluntarism and solidarity.
The lack of resources in the working class to implement a fully-developed system of mutualism in the nineteenth century
was not their fault. In absence of exploitation,
WHAT ABOUT THE MARKET?
Mutualists believe that most of the present inequalities come not from the results of market forces but from the perversion
of these forces. A market is, after all, only a system of voluntary exchange. The state stepped in and granted preferential
treatment to certain individuals and groups. This created the vast inequalities we see. Even if the market were to give rise
to certain problems, these could be offset by voluntary associations such as guilds, trade unions, community groups and co-operatives.