Local Currencies - Replacing Scarcity with Trust

[RoosterTreeComicLit]

So, do the disabled starve?

[stevenwagner]

Google Bitcoins

[philoplatt]

we can change the whole US to this system if we just understand that a dollar is an IOU. the owers name is not on the dollar - it's at the bank on a balance sheet. the bank gives you a bunch of IOU's and charges you interest for borrowing from someone else! you don't think of it as a loan because you can transfer the debt conveniently

[philoplatt]

@philoplatt I meant to say that when you "sell" something for money, you don't think of yourself as a lender because you can transfer the debt easily.

[rationalityRules]

I'm all for monetary libertarianism, but the issue I have with this is he says he's from the UK when he clearly isn't. Why lie? Kind of spoils the rest of what he says...

I'm from the UK, and I can guarantee that is not an accent familiar to our shores! Germany, maybe; Afrikaans, possibly. Who cares.

I've no problem with where somebody is from, until they feel they need to cover it up.

[peakmoment]

@rationalityRules, Francis has been in the US a long time, so his accent may have gotten ....blurred. He described to us a number of local currencies he helped set up, I believe along the western side of the UK. Does where he come from alter his message?

[shogu666]

If that would happen it would actually be step forward and i am for it.

But much better way would be Resource based economy.

Thumbs up for progress whatever would happen !!

[decycle1]

Dollar bills are the bars that hold you captive in the debtor prison

[steviewonder417]

still waitin for that peak! oil is abiotic and the industry and those protecting them are just fixing prices!

[peakmoment]

@steviewonder417. The International Energy Agency acknowledged the peak of conventional oil in fall 2010. Pretty much downhill from here -- that is, we've gotten the cheap and easy-to-get oil. They wouldn't be drilling thousands of feet down in the gulf or offshore Brazil or the Alberta tar sands if there were a cheaper way to go.

[steviewonder417]

@peakmoment so what is this about the tenth time weve had a so called peak? do some research on well recovery rates and their relation to abiogenic oil to get a clearewr picture on why peaks come and go and how its related to price fixing.

[tmackintl]

This is so right on and refreshing!

Actually I've been working on a LETS myself for several years and I am always amazed that most people just do not get it. A friend told me that fish do not talk about water, and people do not talk about money for the same reasons.

This is something that everyone needs to be thinking and talking about. While I agree that a LETS is the way to go, I also realize there must be many good solutions out there.

[Castle3179]

@tmackintl Your friend is very profound.

[billybong78]

He sounds like a commie

[budoracle]

@billybong78 You sound like an idiot.

[ManicEightBall]

This is total BS. This guy is just using fancy words to obscure an old idea that people have known about for years, and is not a miracle cure. He isn't working with money. He isn't doing anyone any favors.

[JoeTube27]

We need to end the monetary system all together. Money has to create scarcity to have value. How stupid can you be? Abundance is the key to have a society not scarcity to have money work. Economics is the devil.

[TheJoker7682]

That's bogus! The money should become more valuable! But, only because our actual physical economy is valuable, that in essence is what defines the value of the money. The physical productivity and the time of it. That could make it cheap if the values offset one another the currency is still valuable because of what it can be traded for. In truth, you want it to have neutral value. It is a medium of exchange and a store of physical value represented by people's acceptance of it over time......

[kingofthepaupers]

Jct: As the financier of Michael Linton's first LETS software in Dbase II, I'm always gratified when I hear of people who made use of the freeware to set up their own interest-free anti-poverty lifeboats.

[silverfoils]

I was with you until it was mentioned that it was a business. No reason not to start your own though. Great idea.

[biocida]

you should everybody read about Silvio Gesell

[peakmoment]

Thank you for this reference: I just learned he was the author of "The Natural Economic Order", who suggests "a medium of exchange that does not gain in value from year to year, but rather loses value progressively, so that anyone who has obtained possession of the medium of exchange has no other interest than to exchange it again as soon as possible for the produce of others." "So we must make money worse as a commodity if we wish to make it better as a medium of exchange."

[TheJoker7682]

That's bogus! The money should become more valuable! But, only because our actual physical economy is valuable, that in essence is what defines the value of the money. The physical productivity and the time of it. That could make it cheap if the values offset one another the currency is still valuable because of what it can be traded for. In truth, you want it to have neutral value. It is a medium of exchange and a store of physical value represented by people's acceptance of it over time......

[toastedpiano]

If people were trully smart enough about 'money' they would realise that they only need to record with a book keeping entry their economic activity they do with oher people, the government cannot tax on a book keeping entry, the absurdity of the income tax would then be revealed. It exists to control and restrict the creation of wealth. Governemnts usually then say that you have to find them the dollars equal to the value of the economic produce, and if you don't they will take what is yours.

[originalcause]

Guaranteed, the IRS will shut this down if people are getting paid in local currency and not declaring it as income. The constitution gives the government the right to coin money and they will interpret this to mean that we don't have that right. In Revelation we read about a time when people will be forced to take the mark in order to buy/sell. The only escape is to develop communities based on love/support for one another. They can outlaw local currencies, but they can't outlaw love/charity.

[biocida]

That´s true, you know. I am argentinian, but i know one or two things about economy and law. The thing is, that the US constitution gives ONLY the power to the Treasury to coin money backed in gold or silver. BUT... as it happens today, it is coined by the FED, which is not a govermental institution, but an asociation of private banks. It is unconstitutional that anybody besides the Treasury to coin money. About IRS, maybe you should watch "America:f. freedom to fascism" from A. Russo.

[MillionthUsername]

I'm all for it, but he said current banking is "free market". It is NOT! Good grief! If it was, who would use it? What he's doing is free market. He can't "close down" the international bankers, but they can close him down - because their system is based on force and fraud. Alternative systems are voluntary, hence free.

Is it "legal"? Like he said, it depends on how successful it is. Local and state governments need to protect these efforts. A successful currency is revolutionary.

[whatpeoplewantonline]

I worked for a barter company here in Florida and the truth is that merchants do not give the same level of service, priority or quality goods to barter transactions. In fact they treat alternative clients with disdain behind the scenes. Cash is still KING!!!!

[whatpeoplewantonline]

I worked for a barter company in Florida and the truth is that merchants do not give the same priority, level of service or quality products to barter currency customers. In fact many regard barter transactions with disdain. Cash is King!!!!

[whatpeoplewantonline]

For several years I worked for a local Barter company in Florida. This is not a perfect system. You do not get the same level of service or quality or priority from merchants when they know that you are not a "regular" cash customer and instead are a barter customer. Cash is King!!!

[nathan49nathan]

excellent interview. local currency is an extraordinarily powerful tool. I hope there are more interviews on new paradigms that also have practical tools to implement them.

[peakmoment]

Although I haven't yet read the book, I've heard that Riane Eisler's new book "The Real Wealth of Nations" presents a new paradigm based on a CARING economics, and suggests policy that could move us in that direction.

[scott715]

Interesting. History has shown that gold and silver emerge as the money commodities when government fiat (decree) is out of the picture. But there's no reason that these alternative money systems shouldn't be able to compete with hard money (gold and silver) and fiat money (dollar/euro/yen/etc. debt paper). Google "What Has Government Done To Our Money?" and read the book online or download the mp3s for free.

[econdemocracy]

The most famous US local currency is probably Ithaca Hours. The founder, Paul Glover, along with the hosts of this website, have more ambitious project ideas: a community alternative to Wall Street itself, economicdemocracy dot org /alternatives-to-wallst.html

[econdemocracy]

I've watched several of her other interviews, Janaia is

very well informed and articulate. The only reason this one

isn't as good as some of the others is the fellow is HARD

to interview. Speaks in very short sentences. Makes claim

and closes his mouth. That kind of. Thing. He's a bit

too slick/forprofit too. Interviewing him is a tough job.

[zyby]

Bravo to Francis Ayley. As for the presentation it has good quality camera work and sound but get a new presenter who can ask intelligent questions (Sorry Jania ). And change the dated electronic incidental music.