We could set up a bank together

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What do all of us have in common? We don't succeed at socialising. Whether it's shyness, saying inappropriate things or not wanting to. We all want a good life though. We have a right to it so long as we're responsible and struggle. I propose many of us are struggling in the wrong way.

Those of us who consume alcohol and buy fashionable clothes in an effort to fit in are doing so in good faith. We just want to belong, we just want the good things in life like anyone. But we're not like most people. Doing these things almost never gets us our goals. Neither does working 9-5 and doing a good job. All too many of us know corruption is widespread and who you know, not what you know lands you promotions all too often.

So why don't we set up a bank among ourselves? We can lend money to each other. We can pool together resources to build our own businesses and make sure we have control of them so that at least in our own businesses the work you do, not your social skills are what get you rewards. Every little bit of money we invest in an average bank is money invested in a bank ran by people who are corrupt. In banks, just as in almost every other business, it's widely the case that social skills get you ahead rather than true talent. So we need to start at the ground and work our way up. The ground is making sure we have a bank that has great foundations built to last.

Well, full points for originality. Most people looking for money here just pretend their girlfriends are ill with cancer

Ok, presuming you do plan to run this above board and legit; if you are trying to set up an ethical bank (and the COOP already exists btw), banks still need to invest in things that will win them back money. Investing in business ideas for people who well, struggle with business, sounds like it might collapse pretty quickly; the people who do earn money and put it in the bank would just be pouring it into failed enterprises and if the bank fails, they might not ever see it back again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against funding for start-up businesses, just I think that should be the job of a much larger charity or the government.

Also, you talk of lending amongst each other and avoiding corruption as if people with aspergers are 100%honest and trustworthy. We aren't.

The OP does make an orginial point. I believe that the OP's use of the term "bank" might not be the best choice, since (US) banks are heavily regulated, and the proposed idea might not meet those requirements. The banks set up (Pre-1933) in the United States were often set up by smaller cultural groups that felt excluded from the economic mainstream.

Lene, I'm don't believe I'm reading your post correctly. The failure rate of Federally backed SBA loans in the last few years has been somewhere around 17 percent*, is your post suggesting that Aspies would, by being Aspies, have a higher failure rate?

This topic would actually be a good lead into looking at what sort of businesses Aspies could set up, working collboratively.

* Edited to note that I don't have the cite on hand on the 17 percent

Last edited by AgentPalpatine on 19 Sep 2010, 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was basing my post purely on what the OP wrote (that people with AS have difficulty socialising, don't want 9-5 jobs etc... ). It's a stereotype, absolutely, but if this is the 'clientelle' that the OP envisages, then I personally would not want to invest in them, no matter how ethically minded they were, nor would I be willing to lend my money to strangers wanting the 'good things in life'.

The difference between federally backed loans and those from a tiny grass roots organisation like the OP is proposing is that the state can afford that 17% loss. A smaller bank might not.



I agree