The current debate on Social Security has sparked questions about how to fund retirement if something happens to the program. One alternative uses the existence of cooperatives and self-sustaining intentional communities. People could contribute money or time to local cooperatives in order to build up a credit that can be used upon retirement from that cooperative and other copperatives across the country that are networked together. This is a complement to Social Security where senior citizens are able to have access to goods made by democratic businesses in order to support themselves.