[wsfii-discuss] Worldchanging article on Complementary currencies

Thu Oct 6 08:51:18 UTC 2005

Adrian,

On 10/5/05, Adrian Short <adrian.short at gmail.com> wrote:
> When the Northern Bank in Belfast got raided, the thieves took so much
> cash (26.5 million GBP) that the bank withdrew all the similar notes
> in circulation. How many more times do you expect them to want to do
> that?
>
> "(Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh) Orde revealed that Northern
> Bank, the victim of the robbery, would be withdrawing all its
> banknotes and replacing them with differently coloured ones, making
> the robbery "the largest theft of waste paper in history".

These are some pretty amazing insights.  I'll have to dig around and
see if this is a trend in the USA as well.  I for one don't see any
need for legacy cash.  I'm a huge advocate of a barter society.  It
seems as perhaps you were also hinting at that any entity with sums of
wealth in excess of say 10k units of currency is in some way causing
suffering for others in the system.  At least that's a notion that
just came to mind.  Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

At least the major insights I've gathered from this thread are that in
small areas a barter system of alternative currency can effectively
keep the area from becoming depleted and gentrified over time.  It
prevents the constant leeching... similar I assume to soil nutrients
if the same crop is planted year after year without renewal.  I can
see the need for a system of more abstract currency for larger
transactions.  Although I personally think any transaction over the
cost of a small piece of land, home or vehicle appear unbeneficial to
anyone in the long run.  Large transactions seem to encourage
profiteering, imbalance, greed, etc..

I once had the pleasure of living in a rural area.  It was quite nice.
 I grew a small garden of vegetables.  I had lots of peppers.  My
friend had lots of tomatoes and eggs from his chickens.  So we traded.
 There wasn't really any sort of like oh this weight or peppers is
worth this or that.  He had an excess that in fact would have spoilt
if not consumed rather quickly.  Therefore his abundance benefited me
as well.  He didn't suffer any for not having insisted for more in
trade.  Fixed currencies don't allow for this type of generosity and
people go hungry or suffer illness because of it.  I think the most
distressing area is health care.  It's very hard to get health care if
you are not in the upper middle class.  How can alternative currencies
be applied to this field where lawsuits and insurance rackets have
made the practitioners rigid?

peace,
core