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George is technically the owner of the Building and Loan bank but he only makes $48/week which is $850 in today's money
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The bank is a co-op which means anyone who banks there is a part owner (syndicalism??)
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He spends his own personal money when the banks crash to make people whole. The bank also stops Potter from monopolizing the town and provides working people and immigrants the ability to own their own homes.
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He gets the chance to sell out to Potter but doesn't.
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The movie ends not with him getting rich, but the town coming together to save the B&L
The movie is about the power of collective action
Yeah, it's not a bank, it's a building society. Something that was a spearhead of early Socialism and later a centrepiece of the Fabian Reformist movement.
The banks killed them by paying people to stuff the ranks and then voting to convert it to a bank, because they were clearly better deals.
Uncoincidentally, most credit unions were founded around the time of the New Deal/labor zenith