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Based on personal impressions, I think Switzerland is a good example of distributism. Much attention is given to the Swiss banks and the "gold" but in reality,
by harryf 8y ago
Based on personal impressions, I think Switzerland is a good example of distributism. Much attention is given to the Swiss banks and the "gold" but in reality, IMO, the strength of the Swiss economy lies in the small & medium business sector.
There are over 300K businesses classes as SMBs in Switzerland, many of them family owned. For a country of 8 million people that means one SMB per 26 people. There are few "high street chains" aside from the supermarkets - unlike the UK for example where the high street of most towns and cities looks the same.
According to this article - https://www.thelocal.ch/20171114/report-swiss-are-richer-than-ever-but-wealth-inequality-persists https://www.thelocal.ch/20171114/report-swiss-are-richer-tha... - 63 percent of Swiss adults have financial assets above $100,000 which means, although there is a small percent of extremely wealthy people, there's a good distribution of wealth.
That in turn means if you want to start a business here, there are plenty of potential customers with disposable income they might be willing to risk on your product or service.
- luiscleto 8y ago> "Distributism favors the dissolution of the current private bank system, or more specifically its profit-making basis in charging interest" Does not sound very Swiss to me.
- coldtea 8y agoIt could be totally Swiss, as long as the banks are used to cater to a global clientele first and foremost, rather than lord over Swiss people themselves.
- notahacker 8y agoThe distributist writers held deep religiously-driven moral concerns about equitable property distribution, so I'm not sure the notion of "yes, we will build our economy around a banking system which helps people from other countries hide their sometimes dubiously-obtained immense wealth and charge them handsomely for the privilege" is really compatible with it.
- discreteevent 8y agoAlso reminds me of mittelstand companies in Germany which often favour independence over growth. So, for example, they avoid borrowing too much in order to retain complete control over their destiny.
- discreteevent 8y agoCome to think of it a lot of the motivation for start ups seems to be distributive - not working for the man, etc. The problem is that borrowing puts on pressure to be aquired or to aquire until you become the man. Maybe Joel Spolsky and DHH have the right idea. To remain a startup and keep that buzz you have to forego the Megabucks.
- bobthechef 8y agoYou seem to be confusing startups with small businesses. They are not the same thing. The former is often motivated by the desire to make enormous amounts of money eventually. Most startup founders probably want to be acquired.
- zaarn 8y agoThere is also much more focus on sustainability, atleast in the mittelstand companies I encountered, it was common to target a certain customer base size and maintain it, reducing churn and making customers happy. Growth is often slowed artificially to prevent problems when scaling up, etc.
- s3nnyy 8y agoExactly the thought that people here might risk on a "new" vendor made me start a small recruitment firm, and I still run it (coderfit.com). I think this wouldn't have been possible in Germany, where I am from because Germans care much more about price rather than quality/good service and it is much harder to start something as a single founder. Germany is optimized for big industry not for solo founders.