Monday, October 14, 2019

Community Investment


A Stokvel is an invitation-only club which can serve as a rotating credit union (pool money and take turns to get the pot) or a savings scheme (pool the money to reduce the costs of saving and investing). I am a Soutie. One foot in South Africa, and one foot in the United Kingdom (my wife is British)… so my interest in Stokvels seems appropriate. The name (but not the idea of group saving) comes from the rotating cattle auctions of English Settlers to the Eastern Cape in South Africa (“stock fairs”). Stokvels have a Constitution which dictates who contributes, how much, what gets done with the money, and how it gets paid out. A Community Wealth Fund could be a Stokvel that pays a Universal Basic Income to all the members of the community. A Universal Basic Income is a periodic payment delivered to all on an individual basis without means test or work requirement. This could be funded partly through redistribution, and partly through building a long-term solution in the form of Capital. We can talk about the kind of world we believe in, or we can build it together. Starting with agreement, and following through with action.



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