Local Currency in the News
Dec. 6th, 2008 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webfarmerThe Sewer Socialists in Milwaukee are at it again. Re-localize the capital flows on your own. Don't wait for the congress critters to save your fiscal system.
Milwaukee Neighbors Could Print Own Money - Chicago Tribune - 03 Dec 08
"Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.
'You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores,' said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. 'They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store.'
Incentives could be used to entice consumers into using the new money. For example, perhaps they could trade $100 U.S. for $110 local, essentially netting them a 10 percent discount at participating stores.
Local money is not a completely uncommon phenomena. San Luis Obispo had it. Most notably, Ithaca, NY has the LETS system which may be the most used of the systems in the US.
Bob Banner Discusses Local Currency, Sustainability and Transition Towns (Video)
Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) - Wikipedia
Ithaca Hours - Wikipedia
Milwaukee Neighbors Could Print Own Money - Chicago Tribune - 03 Dec 08
"Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.
'You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores,' said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. 'They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store.'
Incentives could be used to entice consumers into using the new money. For example, perhaps they could trade $100 U.S. for $110 local, essentially netting them a 10 percent discount at participating stores.
Local money is not a completely uncommon phenomena. San Luis Obispo had it. Most notably, Ithaca, NY has the LETS system which may be the most used of the systems in the US.
Bob Banner Discusses Local Currency, Sustainability and Transition Towns (Video)
Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) - Wikipedia
Ithaca Hours - Wikipedia
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-06 05:40 pm (UTC)Or a catastrophe. You know. One or the other. But still, a wonderful idea to try.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-07 12:35 am (UTC)S&H Green Stamps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&H_Green_Stamps) - Wikipedia
My uncle had a tavern in a small town where a lot of the customers were old timers who didn't drink but liked to play cards in the afternoon. So for each card round they'd pay ten cents for a little piece of cardboard that had my uncles name stamped onto it. They'd bet with these little "chips". They could cash them in for the ten cent value for a case of pop or something else they might want. I was never certain if this was actually legal. :)
In the even more olden days, banks used to issue their own currency.