Local credit union - alarm bells. Maybe only due to my ignorance (I hope so!)

I looked for a local credit union, thinking it was overdue to move away from big banking, and came across Surrey Save.

OK so far; but then I read in the opening blurb (emphasis added): "
It takes just three minutes for you to support SurreySave Credit Union – a new and real alternative to the high street bank. Unlike many other financial service providers, SurreySave will be a community-based organisation. We’ve applied to NatWest Community Force for funding to help us set up groups..."

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm bothered by the involvement of NatWest (not to mention their use of the weasel-word "community" in the title of their "service"):

- doesn't sponsorship imply control?

- the eagerness with which Surrey Save speak about their application to a big bank for sponsorship seems servile, implying perhaps a belief that this will give them more credibility. If this is the case it seems to go against the spirit of credit unions, which - if I have understood correctly - are setting up an alternative and independent financial power and authority.

I stand to be corrected as I am very new to all this. I hope I am wrong in thinking that this sponsorship implies any loss of independence on the part of the credit union.

The sayings of Silvano Borruso, 2

Nature abhors a monculture.

 From the moment I saw the default Windows XP wallpaper a decade or so ago, I wondered, "what are they thinking?!". To make things worse, this one-species-away-from-a-desert scene was called "bliss".
Perhaps this depicts bliss to an unfortunate urbanite, deprived of even a single species of plant for most of the time, who thinks milk comes from the supermarket; but to those who understand "wondrous variety" of creatures and the presence of people integral to the location to be essential to nature as God intended, it is qute depressing.
The first thing I do when making a fresh installation or user account on Windows XP (still a very useful operating system, to Microsoft's credit) is to remove this monstrosity and what has been called the "Fisher Price" theme.
Here I have overlaid Silvano's wise saying.

The sayings of Silvano Borruso, 1

"One man's junk is another man's raw material."

The core theme of this blog

The root idea of this blog is to return to the natural meaning of economy as from the original Greek word, meaning the management of a family household.

Economy ought to be about creating a healthy happy environment for children, parents, extended families. However, in most places now, families are not dominant but have to dance to the tune of financiers, big business, governments and other institutions who don't really understand or love the family sufficiently, and whose agenda is not primarily concerned with the good of the family.

Hence their actions often turn out in practice to be hostile to the family, at least unwittingly. It also happens they deliberately oppose the family, because some key family values are radically opposed to theirs: thrift against consumerism, for example.

This blog is an invitation to unpack the implications of this scenario, develop an understanding of economics as nature intended, and to gather material for other expressions such as conferences, books and articles.

The value of things

Thrift is about saving money, isn't it? Think again. That would imply a reduction of value to monetary value.

Thrift is about saving things because they have intrinsic value; it is about reverence, care, stewardship, about wonder at the simple and ordinary but pervasive things like air, water, food, clothing, materials,...

It is about being content with the adequate and ordinary because we have not forgotten that good enough is just that: good. The good does not disappear the moment a newer or more attractive product appears on the market.

The money we happen to save as a consequence of this attitude is merely a side-effect, not the chief focus of our intentions.