What is Proudhon's theory of mutualism?
Mutualism is my central economic theory, which proposes a society based on free association, reciprocity, and justice. It replaces capitalist wage-labor and state control with a system of worker-owned cooperatives and mutual credit banks. In this system, producers exchange products at cost value, determined by the labor time required to produce them, eliminating profit and interest. A People's Bank would provide interest-free loans to workers, funded by voluntary subscriptions, allowing them to own their means of production. Mutualism aims to achieve 'equality in exchange' without abolishing individual possession, balancing liberty and equality through voluntary contracts and federations of communes.
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