I guess my issue is imagining private banks being bypassed, but it seems you’re saying that isn’t a thing in the real world.
We tried that too. That was the USSR. It famously didn’t work out so well either, despite the superior working hours, vacation time, and education level when compared to the west. Even with well intentioned people acting on the best of intentions, there tends to be unpredictable side effects.
How Amsterdam accidentally created a violence and crime ridden ghetto by building consolidated public housing:
https://youtu.be/sJsu7Tv-fRY?si=1xAsX2Ipvu6L6ybN
Same idea, but Chicago:
https://youtu.be/_CogQmmBL9k?si=pSuz9dvf6G4vC8Qk
Yugoslavia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_City_Gate
Granted, that’s not always the case. The “Kruschevkas” (commie blocks) from the middle period of the USSR are still in use across the former USSR and seem to be working well enough, especially since they were intended to be demolished in the 80s. But there wasn’t really income disparity like we see the west, so it’s hard to compare directly. We do know that over the long term, people got demotivated by shortages of luxury goods, tvs, chocolate, etc and this lead to a vicious cycle of shortages, being corrupt to circumvent the shortages, and demotivation because even if you worked really hard and saved your money, there wasn’t really anything to buy.
By the time they opened the borders, it was already doomed because, unfortunately, the average society citizen liked chocolate more than they liked the ideal of not relying on slavery and child labor to make exotic candy.
