I love, love, love, LOVE local currency stories! We actually had local currencies here in England not as long ago as we may think and the experiments with Transition Towns on with local currencies sparks such excitement in me, I'm not even sure why LOL.
To be honest I’ve not known much about local currencies until recently. I sort of put them in the basket of mega-niche topics. I was shocked to learn that Brazil has 40 of them in wide circulation - that’s a huge scope for making change! The more the better I say!
I agree. Imagination is the key to change, and we need to have the courage to dream big. Everything is impossible until it's done is what I live by. A couple of years ago I collaborated on a small project we called "The Museum of the Impossible". It was a list of things that happened that were considered to be impossible before. Yet, they all became true. Among them are women's voting rights, 40 hour work weeks, paid vacation and gay marriage. The list is a lot longer than that though.
So I want to add a big dream to the list. I am a strong proponent of local currencies and yet, the tendency by most in the community to insist it needs to be kept small is also one of its defects. Don't get me wrong, local currencies that are kept local are definitely a good idea but the current, debt-based monetary system is causing an incredible amount of damage to both our ecosystem and our social cohesion. We also need to dare to present an alternative to that and that won't happen by keeping things small.
Instead of constantly trying to not get crushed by the effects of the current monetary system, we can replace it with something better. Something that helps us to realise the plans for a better world instead of something that constantly creates new roadblocks. With the current system we will always be faced with profit maximisation, short term thinking (cutting down a forest brings in more profit than cultivating it), financial stress (the current system gives no one financial security, even the billionaires suffer from it although they objectively have more than enough) and greed which leads to greenwashing, fraudulent practices, extortion of workers (through low wages and bad working conditions), corruption, ...
Oh I love the sound of The Museum of the Impossible. I’ll have to look it up, thank you for making me aware of it. Re the monetary system, there is no reason why currency issuing nations need to borrow to spend. This is a good read by Jason Hickel on the topic: https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2020/9/10/degrowth-and-mmt-a-thought-experiment. Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth is another good read on the topic.
Currently, the Museum of the Impossible does not exist anymore. It was a one time exposition. But I can send you a file with all the items on the list if you want to. I'll have to look it up and I think it's in Dutch (not completely sure though) but with technology today translating should be easy.
I'm aware of MMT but it still does not systemically adress inequality, short term profiteering and money hoarding. One of the problems with the money we currently use is that it doesn't 'rot'. Everything we use 'rots', except for money. You might be interested in Silvio Gesell's work (https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf). There's also an excellent movie that tells the story of Wörgl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uz4PRWr3ns
Thanks for the paper. I still see some shortcomings with MMT though. The biggest one is that it needs constant human supervision to remain stable. That means it's dependant on the politicians in power to use it wisely. Imagine Trump being at the controls. Would MMT still work? In my opinion, it leans too much on people in power doing the right thing and that's it weak point.
I love, love, love, LOVE local currency stories! We actually had local currencies here in England not as long ago as we may think and the experiments with Transition Towns on with local currencies sparks such excitement in me, I'm not even sure why LOL.
To be honest I’ve not known much about local currencies until recently. I sort of put them in the basket of mega-niche topics. I was shocked to learn that Brazil has 40 of them in wide circulation - that’s a huge scope for making change! The more the better I say!
I agree. Imagination is the key to change, and we need to have the courage to dream big. Everything is impossible until it's done is what I live by. A couple of years ago I collaborated on a small project we called "The Museum of the Impossible". It was a list of things that happened that were considered to be impossible before. Yet, they all became true. Among them are women's voting rights, 40 hour work weeks, paid vacation and gay marriage. The list is a lot longer than that though.
So I want to add a big dream to the list. I am a strong proponent of local currencies and yet, the tendency by most in the community to insist it needs to be kept small is also one of its defects. Don't get me wrong, local currencies that are kept local are definitely a good idea but the current, debt-based monetary system is causing an incredible amount of damage to both our ecosystem and our social cohesion. We also need to dare to present an alternative to that and that won't happen by keeping things small.
So here is a proposition for an alternative for the current system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFw61R1e8SU and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370063555_An_alternative_general-purpose_money_supply_model_for_a_future-proof_sustainable_economy): a monetary system that provides financial security for all, reduces inequality and is inherently stable. I am currently doing a PhD on it and we (http://happonomy.org) are laying the groundwork for a worldwide community of system changers.
Instead of constantly trying to not get crushed by the effects of the current monetary system, we can replace it with something better. Something that helps us to realise the plans for a better world instead of something that constantly creates new roadblocks. With the current system we will always be faced with profit maximisation, short term thinking (cutting down a forest brings in more profit than cultivating it), financial stress (the current system gives no one financial security, even the billionaires suffer from it although they objectively have more than enough) and greed which leads to greenwashing, fraudulent practices, extortion of workers (through low wages and bad working conditions), corruption, ...
Let's be brave and make history!
Oh I love the sound of The Museum of the Impossible. I’ll have to look it up, thank you for making me aware of it. Re the monetary system, there is no reason why currency issuing nations need to borrow to spend. This is a good read by Jason Hickel on the topic: https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2020/9/10/degrowth-and-mmt-a-thought-experiment. Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth is another good read on the topic.
Currently, the Museum of the Impossible does not exist anymore. It was a one time exposition. But I can send you a file with all the items on the list if you want to. I'll have to look it up and I think it's in Dutch (not completely sure though) but with technology today translating should be easy.
I'm aware of MMT but it still does not systemically adress inequality, short term profiteering and money hoarding. One of the problems with the money we currently use is that it doesn't 'rot'. Everything we use 'rots', except for money. You might be interested in Silvio Gesell's work (https://www.naturalmoney.org/NaturalEconomicOrder.pdf). There's also an excellent movie that tells the story of Wörgl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uz4PRWr3ns
It's based on true facts.
Have you seen this paper on degrowth & MMT?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923002318
Thanks for the paper. I still see some shortcomings with MMT though. The biggest one is that it needs constant human supervision to remain stable. That means it's dependant on the politicians in power to use it wisely. Imagine Trump being at the controls. Would MMT still work? In my opinion, it leans too much on people in power doing the right thing and that's it weak point.
maybe we need a Project Drawdown for Degrowth
Great idea!