[wsfii-discuss] Worldchanging article on Complementary currencies

Thu Oct 6 08:33:57 UTC 2005

Mayor of London:

"Mayor sets out 2006 fares package to boost switch from cash to Oyster card
 4-10-2005

"London Mayor Ken Livingstone today set out the proposed 2006 Tube and
bus fares package which aims to persuade more passengers to pay as
they go using an Oyster smartcard rather than cash.

"Almost 50 per cent of Tube journeys and 40 per cent of bus journeys
are made using Oyster, but the majority of those are season tickets.
The Mayor wants to build on the success of Oyster by encouraging more
passengers to use Oyster to pay as they go, rather than cash, to make
journeys quicker and easier."

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=5788

For example, the price of a single tube journey will increase to £3
but be capped at £1.50 for Oyster users. This is what I mean by cash
being "accepted grudgingly or traded at a disadvantage to the buyer".
It couldn't be more overt.

In case anyone's got the wrong idea about my position on this, I see
the death of cash as one of the cornerstones of the total surveillance
society. It won't happen as a dramatic coup de grace, but it will die
from a thousand cuts. It's not something that I welcome. But I believe
that not only will it happen but it _is_ happening.

Putting control of currency back into the hands of the people who use
it is one way of ensuring that people have systems that genuinely meet
their needs, freedom of choice, and an opportunity to directly
participate in the management of their community's money.

--
Adrian Short