Exactly. I'd like to take this to its logical extreme, and have me be 100% owner of my own bank. I will hold notes printed by the treasury and open something in my pocket to withdraw from my account when it is time to pay.
The risk of being the sole owner of your bank is fairly obvious, though. I'd want multiple owners for central limit theorem reasons. How would you work around extreme variability in demands if you are the sole owner?
Also, how would you earn interest on your money if not by lending it out to others, who would then also be customers of your bank and hence owners?
It sounds to me like what you describe is either
(a) not really a bank in the sense that we mean when we talk about banks, or
(b) not a logical extension of collective ownership but rather that you want a traditional capitalist bank except where you are the owner instead of someone else.
>(b) not a logical extension of collective ownership but rather that you want a traditional capitalist bank except where you are the owner instead of someone else.
Collectivism taken to the most localized extreme is individualism. This is a collective of one.
>(a) not really a bank in the sense that we mean when we talk about banks, or
You can ask these questions about any bank; the mere fact this bank is owned by the sole depositor doesn't change what a bank is.
>I'd want multiple owners for central limit theorem reasons. How would you work around extreme variability in demands if you are the sole owner?
The sole depositor is also the sole owner. It's a collective ownership of depositing customers, not those who owe the bank money.
But in the end I'm just exemplifying what the logic extreme of your suggestion ends in, which actually happens to be a system I approve of. You keep treasury notes in your wallet, lend them if you like, and pull them out whenever you'd like to 'withdraw' them from your demand account. There's no fancy rubber stamp or business license to back it up, but it meets the definition of a bank (which is roughly an institution that accepts demand deposits and possibly loans them out).
I see. I think our difference is that I consider the people who (possibly) loan money also customers of the bank, hence owners, if the bank is collectively owned.
I think of loans as a critical part of the bank business because otherwise it's just a glorified safe.
