Thomas Greco is author of many books on money, debt, currency, etc. His latest book The End of Money and the Future of Civilization by Thomas Greco, Jr. - Chelsea Greenclarifies the money mystery, origins of money and provides some clear pathways for improvements to our economic system.
"Throughout the world today, local communities are struggling to maintain their economic vitality and quality of life. The reasons for this are both economic and political, and are largely the result of external forces that are driven by outside agencies like central governments, central banks, and large transnational corporations. In brief, decisions made by others outside of the community are having enormous impacts on life within the community. Be that as it may, it is possible for communities to regain a large measure of control over their own welfare and to ameliorate the effects of those external forces by employing peaceful approaches that encourage human solidarity and are based on private, voluntary initiative and creativity."
The key solution he proposes is a concept known as "alternative currencies" or "complimentary currencies" which actually have a long history and widespread use currently.
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Getting Community Currencies to Fly
John Rogers, Value for People, www.valueforpeople.co.uk
Why set them up?
Imagine a spectrum from LOVE through GIFT to MARKET to CASINO.
With unconditional LOVE we surprise each other with 'random acts of kindness and senseless beauty'.
With the GIFT some expectation begins to creep in and considerations of reciprocity and mutual survival emerge.
With the MARKET money emerges as an impersonal 'medium of exchange' and means of allocating scarce resources.
With the CASINO (speculation, futures etc.) we mortgage the future to pay for present greed.
Different forms of complementary currencies locate themselves somewhere on the spectrum between GIFT and MARKET. Some will mimic the market more, allowing for price differentials and encouraging business participation, others will look much more like the gift economy. In fact, observation of participation in systems that build community show that many people will record a few exchanges through the system then just do stuff for each other, thus achieving the goal of rebuilding community.
See part of my talk explaining this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-x5CJYBVO8
5 PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY CURRENCY DESIGN
There have been thousands of experiments in many countries with CCs over the last 25 years. Many of them have not sustained themselves over time, a few just hobble along without achieving very much for a few people, a handful make some significant impact on their participant group.
What patterns may be observed across all of the different approaches, brands and models?
Too often CC designers pay a great deal of attention to designing currency mechanisms that may work great in theory but then crash because of poor management. It is often the people factors that cause CCs to cease operations, however good the mechanism.
Using the metaphor of flight, imagine five areas to pay attention to when designing and planning for CCs:
1. Who are the potential 'passengers' (CC participants and users) and where do they wish to fly to?
Be sure to ask them in detail in order to build up a picture of peoples' problems, goals and needs which can then be matched up with underused assets in the community: skills, resources, business inventory, restaurant and theatre seats, community spaces, rooms, vehicles etc.
A CC is firstly an information system for helping people to solve their problems, reach their goals and meet their needs. It is secondly a reward system for those who offer their assets.
2. What's the flying weather like? What forces are working both for and against success for the CC?
What personal, community , political or financial resources are available locally, regionally or virtually to support CC development? How do we map available assets, value chains etc.?
What forces might be antagonistic? How might we deal with them?
3. How do we set up an airline? What governance structures are required?
All systems have some kind of governance at some level, even it is just a simple brain to process feedback.
Human systems in particular require mechanisms that enable decisions to be made, power to be shared and conflicts to be mediated.
Do we need a constitution, board of governance, annual meeting etc.?
Can we integrate the CC into an existing governance structure in an existing organization?
4. How do we appoint competent staff to fly the airplanes? What management structures and processes are needed?
If we want the planes to fly we need to find good staff to fly them, whether they are volunteers or paid.
How do we identify what jobs need doing and the skill sets required to do them well?
Think about job descriptions, person specifications, marketing, monitoring, evaluation, training etc.
5. How do we design great aircraft to fly where the participants wish to go? What design choices do we have in creating successful currency mechanisms?
[see more and his chart here:]
http://unmoney.wik.is/Getting_Community_Currencies_to_Fly
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