Hey! For whatever reason, I have found myself involved in a progeam to create a local currency in my general area. For those unfamiliar, here are some links.
Has anybody been involved in this sort of thing, or is anyone knowledgable about them? Can anyone recommend some scholarly research on the subject? Anything I should know, etc.?
Thanks.
I have used Ithaca Hours, but wasn’t part of running it. I suggest you check with the folks who run Ithaca Hours, since it is a very successful non-program (as opposed to a “program”–something run by a government, automatically doomed to end up making things worse).
I was involved with a couple of green dollar networks in NZ. One was highly successful and the other wasn’t.
Last time I googled LETS and green dollar networks there was a lot of stuff out there. I know there was a guy who travelled in NZ and Australia from Canada doing a study on LETS and why they were so successful.
Terribly vague, I’m sorry. It’s been years since I was involved. What do you want to know?
The vast majority of it seems to be by partisans. Sorta like asking a new urbanist about the good points and bad points of high-density housing.
OK – bad stuff. People who join a LETS system and who ask for the larger proportion of the trade to be in real dollars. That’s OK if you’re someone who can generate lots of real dollars but if you’ve joined a LETS system to increase your cashflow 'cause you’re broke, you can end up with lots of green dollars and no way to spend them if all the services you need/want require you to pay 90% in real dollars. I felt it was ethical to cover my real dollars costs in real dollars but I charged my time and markup in green dollars. If someone negotiated with me, I would do the trade in all green dollars if I could afford to.
You need a good mix of traders who have essential goods and services and traders who sell luxury goods. You must avoid having the vast majority of your traders in debit all the time. I know that the PLEBS system in Christchurch, NZ had an inflation issue which I didn’t fully understand at the time but I see that from being one of the largest trading systems in the world at the time, they appear now to be really small.
Bad debtors who pay in real money instead of LETS and who leave the system was a problem (possibly linked to the inflation issue).
Intersystem trading is problematic – I think the solution was that if you wanted to trade green dollars outside your system, you had to be in credit and not go into debit for the trade.
Welfare – does your welfare system treat green dollars as income and debit the welfare payment? If you’re merrily trading lots of green dollars and the welfare people decide you’ve got income, it can be very difficult to pay your rent. I think NZ used to treat green dollars as actual income and I don’t know how the negotiations on that worked out. Australia, I think ignores the green dollar networks as income.
Disclaimer – it’s been a decade since I actively traded. I really liked the Chch system when it was flourishing and when I google, I see names of people I traded with still trading. It can be fantastic. It also can be a big fat waste of time depending on the system.
OK – bad stuff. People who join a LETS system and who ask for the larger proportion of the trade to be in real dollars. That’s OK if you’re someone who can generate lots of real dollars but if you’ve joined a LETS system to increase your cashflow 'cause you’re broke, you can end up with lots of green dollars and no way to spend them if all the services you need/want require you to pay 90% in real dollars. I felt it was ethical to cover my real dollars costs in real dollars but I charged my time and markup in green dollars. If someone negotiated with me, I would do the trade in all green dollars if I could afford to.
You need a good mix of traders who have essential goods and services and traders who sell luxury goods. You must avoid having the vast majority of your traders in debit all the time. I know that the PLEBS system in Christchurch, NZ had an inflation issue which I didn’t fully understand at the time but I see that from being one of the largest trading systems in the world at the time, they appear now to be really small.
Bad debtors who pay in real money instead of LETS and who leave the system was a problem (possibly linked to the inflation issue).
Intersystem trading is problematic – I think the solution was that if you wanted to trade green dollars outside your system, you had to be in credit and not go into debit for the trade.
Welfare – does your welfare system treat green dollars as income and debit the welfare payment? If you’re merrily trading lots of green dollars and the welfare people decide you’ve got income, it can be very difficult to pay your rent. I think NZ used to treat green dollars as actual income and I don’t know how the negotiations on that worked out. Australia, I think ignores the green dollar networks as income.
Disclaimer – it’s been a decade since I actively traded. I really liked the Chch system when it was flourishing and when I google, I see names of people I traded with still trading. It can be fantastic. It also can be a big fat waste of time depending on the system.