More than money?
13 February 2012/David Boyle
Keynes, National Self-Sufficiency
“London is one of the richest cities in the history of
civilisation, but it cannot 'afford' the highest standards
of achievement of which its own living citizens are
capable, because they do not 'pay'. If I had the power
today, I would surely set out to endow our capital cities
with all the appurtenances of art and civilisation on the
highest standards ... convinced that what I could create
I could afford - and believing that money thus spent
would not only be better than any dole, but would make
unnecessary any dole. For what we have spent on the
dole in England since the war we could have made our
cities the greatest works of man in the world.”
Are they still there?
English bank manager, circa 1975
The typology
Two kinds of complementary currency
•
•
Social exchange
Economic exchange
My typology
Social
Local
Time banks/service
credits, eg Member-toMember, Skill Swap,
Rushey Green, Spice,
Care Banks, Freecycle,
Holy Cross.
National Loyalty points, eg Nectar,
or intern’l NuSpaapas, Young Scot,
Wigan and Windsor, Fureai
Kippu, Washington Youth
Court., Karrots
Economic
Local currencies, eg LETS,
Brixton pound, Ithaca hours,
Stamp Scrip, Community
Way, local barter, Community
Exchange, berkshares
Backed currencies, eg kWh
money, Carbon points, Liberty
dollar, Terra, Wir, LLP money,
C3, Farm notes.
Time banks/service credits
•
Outcomes: co-production, building
confidence, skills and social networks,
supporting people for personal change
or recovery, building community
Motivational points
•
Outcomes: Nudging behaviour, coproduction with big institutions,
reducing emissions, building loyalty,
recognising effort
Local economic exchange
•
Outcomes: rebuilding local economies
and employment, using local resources
more effectively, valuing local waste
Backed exchange
•
Outcomes: re-valuing local
renewables, revaluing agricultural
produce, providing reliable stores of
value, supporting SMEs with factoring
or credit
Another key
There’s no one perfect
currency that can right
all the wrongs of the
past and every flaw in
the conventional
money we use.
The current state of the debate
Volos barter cheque
Brazil community bank
The tale of Charles Zylstra
“It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle and streets are
deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit. A
tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on
the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As
soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his
debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute,
who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her services on credit.
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. The hotel
proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect
anything. At that moment the travelLer comes down the stairs, states that the rooms
are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now
out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, ladies and
gentlemen, is how a ‘stimulus package’ works.” Internet joke, Dec 2010
Three conditions
•
That it works.
•
That it is simple enough to understand. And
adapt if necessary (not manipulative).
•
That its benefits outweigh the considerable
disadvantages of having narrow money.
Five years time, maybe…
•
•
•
•
•
Multiple currencies underpinning different
aspects of our lives and available on apps on
mobile phones.
Interlocking time banks in every public sector
outpost to underpin co-production.
Time debt owed by students before graduation.
Waste with its own value in credits.
Cities issuing their own money via their own
banks/SME loan infrastructure.
New kinds of money
New kinds of money
Find out more
www.david-boyle.co.uk
www.neweconomics.org
www.neweconomicsinstitute.org
www.timebanks.org.uk
www.transitionculture.org
www.pluggingtheleaks.org
www.berkshares.org