Sweat Equity Do it-don't pay someone else to do it for you! Our own work i often the best kind of money possible for financing projects. We don't have to get someone el e' approval, and we can use our eveni~gs, weekends and other normally non-mcome-producing time productively. Building a home ourselves can reduce first costs by at least fifty percent, while using our time recycling materials instead of purchasing new ones can cut costs another 20%. Building a house in sections as money and time become available instead of all at once can avoid costly financing. This is important because financing costs double and even triple what we end up paying for ~ house. An owner-built house costmg $5.50 per square foot for materials would end up costing $33 to $50 per square foot if built as a tract houseonce mortgage costs are added in. . Our own work is also more valuable. When we have s9meone else do work for us, we have taxes taken out of OUR income before we hire them, we have to pay for their profit, and ~v~ are usually limited to union productivity levels. For more details see: The Owner-Builder and the Code, Ken Kern, Ted Kogan, Rob Thallon, 1976, $5 from: Owner-Builder Publications P.O. Box 550 Oakhurst, CA 93664 Credit Unions In ew York City, a six-story, 23-unit tenement at 251 East 119th Street, in East Harlem, has been rehabilitated by a street gang-the Renigades-int~ a tenant-owned and managed cooperative. Sweat equity by volunteers to earn their own apartments has allowed projected rents to be $130 per month as opposed to $250 per month for similar one-bedroom apartments done by private contractors. Materials and salaries for 12 gang members who performed most of the work were financed by a loan from the city's Housing and Development Administration. In a similar project on the Lower East Side, in addition to rehabilitating the building, solar collectors have been designed for the roof to supply hot water, and the now-skilled group plans to rehabilitate other buildings and manufacture solar heaters for other locations. For further.information contact: Pratt Institute Center for Community & Environmental Development 240 Hall Street Brooklyn, NY 11205 Almost everyone feels a little uncomfortable about money. We kno for or be equated with a lot of things that are important. Yet we ~s And we often have suspicions that a lot of hocus-pocus is going on i end of the deal. It turns out that there IS a lot of hocus-pocus going *Bankers who control loan policies have the power to determine w form our cities take-without any public disclosure or involvement. public monopoly. *Widespread banking practices such as redlining-where banks deter because it might be less profitable-create slums and replace homeo1 Credit unions are locally controlled savings and loan organizations set up by a group of people to retain control of how their savings are used. They avoid some of the problems with placing your money in a bank where it is then loaned out on the bank's terms to the "best credit risks" (mostly large corporations). Because each member of the credit union has a vote in policy-making, YOU can borrow and loan money for purposes YOU value. *High interest rates on money make all financial calculations discou of our resources and speculative activities-and making a sustainable *Unregulated manipulation of our money supply by banks has been *Although most of the money.a bank uses belongs to depositors, n deposits, banks claim they must make the "most profitable" loansactivities that remove money and jobs from a community rather th economy and create local jobs. Savings are insured by the federal government, members keep for themselves the normal bank profit. Members must have a "common bond"-living within a specific area, working for a common employer, or sharing membership in an organization whose activities develop common loyalties and mutual interests. Although a very beneficial alternative Approval procedures are often difficult -the federal government refused to allow a national prisoners' credit union that was being set up because prisoners' savings are put into a fund whose interest goes into the g-uard's retirement fund fund! The government claimed the prisoners had no common bond! A feminist credit union has been set up in Massachusetts, and local ones are much easier to do. At least two co-ops we know of have recently organized credit unions: Ashland Community F Store 37 3rd St. Ashland, OR Our history of being unwilling to deal with the complexities of the left them open to unchallenged use by developers and speculators. .....1:11111-.. . . . 1 most important element in the deterioration of our cities and the p create our vast, ugly and expensive suburbia. Today more and more people are realizing the power that their mon range of ways to use their money productively while retaining contr The Bankers, by Martin Mayer, Ballantine, 1974, $2.25. Gives a goo system. Talks about how banks are ·used to the advantage of a small The Seven Laws ofMoney, by Michael Phillips, Word Wheel (540 Sa Opens up a lot of new perspectives on how to deal with and withou1 ends. to normal banking institutions, credit unions may have several difficulties. Lack of capable financial management often causes problems, short time limits on loans frequently prevent home mortgages (though at least one credit union set up its own savings and loan to allow home mortgages), and loans cannot be made to non-members or organizations. Many people cannot qualify for affinity requirements and cannot obtain credit union services. And the money belonging to a credit union must be deposited in a normal bank- permitting its use and New Age journal (32 Station Street_, Brookline, MA 02147), $8/yr. New Pioneer Cooperative Society money-credit unions, tithing, businesses. NA] No. 11 (March, 1976 529 Gilbert T1·th1·ng cellence, Bob Schwartz. I9wa City, IA 52240 . . . . . I.::~~~~~~~.:;,,;;---------------~ For more information on credit umons, wnte National Credit Union Administration, Washington, DC 20456, or Edward T. Bernhoft, Director, Regi0n VI, 760 Market Street, Room 809, by the bank despite the wishes of credit union members. San F ancisco, CA 94102. State Banks North Dakotans, fed up with being at the mercy of out-of-state banke~s charging excessive rates for rural credit, set up a state-owned bank in ~919. One of the most profitable banks rn the co~ntry and presently the only one that ,s state-owned, it saved thousands of far.i-,-.1ii11•■ mers from ruin in the depression and now has about $32 million in loans to farmers, $35 million in housing loans and $27 million in student loans. The bank, largest between Minneapol_is and Spokane, relies heavily on depo~1ts o~ -•-••• state funds, avoiding the potential mis- 1 .. J"'•n• dealings resulting fr?m div~ying up state .-.'IIUllll~_,,-:1\ deposits to the profit of p_nv_ate banks and keeping state money ms1de the state. Public disclosure and public control are two obvious advantages of state banks. Moves to set up similar systems are underway in Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey and California. See "Banks of North Dakota," by Derek Norcross, Parade Magazine, November 9, 1975. Tithing is a very different kind of banking-it is simply taking responsibility ourselves for what our mont::y does. In the strictest traditional sense, it means giving one tenth of a year's produce or profits away (originally to the Church). Many people are going back to this practice-no matter how little they have-and are finding the rewards great. Tithing can be looked at as an investment-whether time, interest or dollars -:and its most important benefit may be in learning how to invest wisely and soundly. It could be the beginning of getting away from the abstractions and material rewards of money. For-further thoughts on tithing, see the December 1974 issue of New Age Journal 32 Station Street Brookline, MA 02147 ($1, back issue) Many food co-ops have worked out related plans where they have invested their profits in new enterprises. In Minneapolis, the North Country Co-Op seeded other neighborhood co-ops, a bakery, a warehouse and a restaurant. Austin, Texas, and Iowa City, Iowa, co-ops have done similar seeding-starting related enterprises without keeping control of them like the horizontal and vertical expansion of large corporations. Sustaining Fund is a good example of a formalized institutiona tit mgyrc conscientious businesses to support community needs out of their profits. and the funds are used as seed money to start and assist pr • s fossilized Community Fund! ugene Community Sustaining Fund X 340
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