a founding member of the Living Economies Trust, New Zealand
November 4, 2009
Currency is the lifeblood of an economic system. Most people think that there’s only one type of money, because that’s all they’ve ever known. Cheques and credit cards etc. represent special-purpose forms of cash, but money is money, they think, regardless of the form it takes. Few realise that there are, potentially at least, many different forms of money, and each type can affect the economy, human society and the natural environment in a different way.
Bernard Lietaer, research fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Resources, California, and author of "The Future of Money" (2001), says
‘We create our exchange systems and then they create the world we live in.’
Richard Douthwaite, author of "The Ecology of Money" (1999), says
‘If we wish to live more ecologically, it would make sense to adopt monetary systems that make it easier to do so.’
Essentially, community currencies connect unused or under-utilised resources with unmet needs, enabling exchanges to take place despite a shortage of money.
A wide variety of currency models are currently in use throughout the world, including manually operated mutual credit systems, beautifully designed vouchers and on-line accounting systems.
Members form trading circles, list their offerings and needs, and offer and accept payment for goods and services either wholly or partly in the local currency.
Local Currencies are the ultimate in loyalty programs. Unlike profits derived from trading with national currencies, the wealth generated by trading with exchange systems created by and for local communities stays within the district.
Since community currencies work alongside and supplement national currency, once their advantages are understood they are welcomed by the community, particularly in times of economic stress. Historically, community currencies have been economic and social lifesavers.
The principle advantages of community currencies are:
• Protection against global economic instability
• Stemming ‘leakage’ of community wealth to outsiders/offshore
• Support for local small/medium businesses
• Business opportunities in import substitution
• Less fuel needed for imported product
• Increased employment opportunities
• Less conventional money required for desirable projects
• Enhanced sense of community
• Branding opportunity for the district
• Tourist attraction, especially for early adopters
Naturally, if we decide to change how money works we first of all need to understand how the current money system is designed, how the use of it manages to leave a trail of destruction in its wake and what other options are possible.
Deirdre Kent, in "Healthy Money, Healthy Planet", brings to light some surprising facts about the history and workings of money:
Almost all of our money supply is created by private banks as interest-bearing debt. The Reserve Bank has confirmed that only about two percent of the money supply in use in New Zealand is created interest-free.
The problem with this is that money is always in short supply. When banks provide loans they create the principle only. Borrowers must find extra money to repay the interest either by increasing their production, competing with others facing the same problem or by further borrowing.
Therefore:
• The never-ending need to increase production causes intolerable demand to be made on natural resources.
• The competition for an inadequate supply of money is a bit like musical chairs; someone misses out; bankruptcy is inevitable for some of the losers.
• Further borrowing compounds borrower’s problems, consigning them to long-term and often inescapable debt.
Given the above options imposed by the present money system it is little wonder that regionally, nationally and globally we are now faced with escalating environmental damage, economic strain and social dislocation.
In the search for effective means of meeting these challenges, particularly the immanent problem of diminishing and more costly supplies of energy communities are beginning to recognise the potential of community currencies.
Cuba’s response to ‘peak oil’
When Cuba lost access to Soviet oil in the early 1990s, the country faced an immediate crisis – feeding the population – and an ongoing challenge: how to create a new low-energy society. Cuba transitioned from large, fossil-fuel intensive farming to small, less energy-intensive organic farms and urban gardens, and from a highly industrial society to a more sustainable one. Although barely mentioned in the documentary film, "The Power of Community" documenting Cuba’s recovery, community currency played a very important role in that process.
Kinsale 2021, Ireland
The creators of the Kinsale 2021 energy descent plan( 7) (Kinsale has a population of 7,000), recently announced that the Kinsale Town Council has unanimously adopted the proposed long term plan. The plan, which involved the community in its development, is based on the changes that can be expected in the absence of cheap fuel. It is significant that 10 of the 53 pages of the plan are devoted to the design and implementation of a community currency system. Also noteworthy is the priority given to creating their local currency as the first step in the process of implementing the plan.
Regional currencies in Germany
Mounting economic, environmental and social pressures are prompting greater openness by communities and their business and civic leaders to seriously consider the implementation of community currencies. This is particularly so in Germany, where Prof Dr Margrit Kennedy has pioneered regionally-scaled systems. Seventeen ‘Regio’ currency systems have already launched their local vouchers, with 49 more in the pipeline.
The first example was launched in March 2005 by students at a Steiner school in Chiemgau, for the purpose of raising funds for major repairs to the school building.
Regio participants purchase vouchers at 1:1 for Euros and use them to purchase goods or services, either wholly or as a percentage of the price. Vouchers may be redeemed for Euros at any time, minus an administration fee. A combination of education and built in incentives leads to a preference for trades using the local currency.
A valued feature of local currencies is their tendency to build community. Like the growing appreciation of ‘slow food’, ‘slow money’ is helping to restore the social dimension of trading. It takes more time to process a transaction, time for graciousness, time for building connection with community of place.
Once would-be participants come to appreciate the advantage of having their own exchange medium promoters sign up members from all sectors of the community; local government, banks, businesses, community organisations and ordinary citizens.
In February 2007 an ABC TV news story reported the fast spreading voucher-based BerkShares? in Massachusetts, USA. US$835,000 worth of vouchers were distributed to the participating banks prior to the 2006 launch; 225 local businesses accept the vouchers. ‘Chambers of Commerce in three neighbouring towns recently asked how they can bring BerkShares? to their communities.’
Community currencies are a vital tool for the empowerment of local communities as they come to terms with the multitude of challenges related to energy and climate change.
source:Living Economy
Posts
Before Lincoln declared war on the Constitution, many (most) communities had local currencies in the form of local bank notes issued by local banks. These had the advantage in that they could be used outside of the community in which it was issued. Depending on the quality of the bank, the note may or may not trade at a discount. Moreover, it could always be redeemed on demand in lawful money.
ReplyDeletePlease review bibocurrency.org, particularly the BIBO Currency Rationale Document. In a nutshell, many local currencies provide good examples of stable currency designs, but they don't solve the underlying problem we must all face and deal with. That is, you cannot beat unstable exponentially expanding currencies with stable linear local currencies alternatives. The former gobbles up all the valuable collateral at increasing speeds making it unavailable for use in stable currency design. Not to mention that the vast amount of real wealth has already been legally siphoned off into the hands of few and the rest is, also legally, tied up in debt contracts.
ReplyDeleteIt is a pipe dream to assume that local currencies will do anything more than support marginal non vital systems unless they adopt a unifying standard so that all local currency systems become local in implementation and identity yet completely interoperable between themselves. Also it is very important that at the same time, exact technical knowledge becomes the mainstay of the average citizens world economic view. The bibocurrency standard proposal is a first step towards such a common standard and knowledge, without which the peoples of the world will remain prey to the fear mongering psychological mine trap that contemporary money is.
We already have an up and coming real currency system. In fact you can buy silver right now at http://www.mundogold.com
ReplyDeleteand for more information look at http://www.opencurrency.com
"It is a pipe dream to assume that local currencies will do anything more than support marginal non vital systems unless they adopt a unifying standard so that all local currency systems become local in implementation and identity yet completely interoperable between themselves."
ReplyDeleteJct: Yes, you are right. And it's been done.
With Africa trading with mobile-phone minutes, Arabia trading with phone cards, with Hours being traded in Ithaca, with Greencredits being traded in LETS, the banks get no interest. And the movement to cut the middleman out of the usury is growing.
With Facebook, Twitter, Graigslist, offering social currencies to their databases, with governments doing inter-national barter deals, the use of these new self-created social credits all around the world is undergoing unheralded growth but the use of interest-free time-based currency is key.
When the local currency is pegged to the Time Standard of Money (how many dollars per hour of volunteer labor, children too) Hours earned locally can be intertraded with other timebanks globally! In 1999, I paid for 39/40 nights in Europe with an IOU for a night back in Canada worth 5 Hours. You can too.
U.N. Millennium Declaration UNILETS Resolution C6 to governments is for a time-based currency to restructure the global financial architecture.
See http://youtube.com/kingofthepaupers on growth of the international time-trading network.
Don't forget Worgl.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteThe time standard of money is an option but as you know any stable money will also do. The key is not the unit but rather it is the specification.
At bibocurrency.org we have a specification which is more than a description of what the unit is based on.
Your unilets time standard of money requires a specification, so far all you have said is that the unit is based on time.
Any problem in declaring your unilets time units as adhering to the bibo standard of money?
Marc
Helen Dew: "Cuba transitioned from large, fossil-fuel intensive farming to small, less energy-intensive organic farms and urban gardens, and from a highly industrial society to a more sustainable one. Although barely mentioned in the documentary film, "The Power of Community" documenting Cuba’s recovery, community currency played a very important role in that process."
ReplyDeleteJct: This is the first I've ever heard of Cuba's community currency. I'd heard Castro supported barter but didn't know he'd created any barter currency for Cubans to use.