It is clear that it will be very difficult to get the Government to create a Government-issued currency. There will be opposition, particularly from the special interests. I have been thinking, however, about a potential path to reform. Though the national Government may not issue its own currency, maybe a council would.

First of all, i do not think that councils have the authority to collect taxes (that could of course change), but they do charge people, particularly businesses, for services like waste, collection, water etc. I am sure that, particularly in a recession, businesses would be very open to any ideas on lessening this burden.

I was reminded of the island of Guernsey. The Island was desperately in need of infrastructural development, but it was bereft of money. The interest payments alone accounted for most of their tax revenue. They found that they could not bleed any more taxes out of the people and they could not afford to borrow any more money.

The Government, in their brilliance, decided to issue their own money debt-free and spent it on the needed infrastructural development. To this day, the Guernsey Government continues to issue its own currency alongside bank of England notes.



http://www.aberhartfoundation.ca/PDF...he%20Banks.pdf

Guernsey has a population of about 70,000, smaller than most Council areas in Ireland. If they can do it, why can't our councils do it? Guernsey has the 9th highest GDP per Capita in the world and very low taxes.

A Council could do this:

1. First of all, get the idea out there in the locality. Get businesses to sign up and, most importantly, get people talking about their own new local currency.

2. The Local Council could get specially made Credit Cards. These cards could be given (or sold at a nominal price) to those who have signed up for the scheme, primarily council employees. Local businesses would be signed up to accept payment in these 'vouchers'. The cards should be made so as they work with normal credit card readers.

3. 100 'points' would be credited to each card. The people could then go to the participating shops and spent their points. One point would be equivalent to one Euro.

4. At the end of, say, a month, the businesses could use the points that they had accumulated to pay council charges. One point = One Euro.

5. Hopefully, more businesses and council employees would be signed up to the scheme. More money would be credited to the cardholders, say 200, and the process would start again.

6. Cards would then be given to the business owners and their employees. They would decide to spent some of their points, rather than pay their council charges with them. The voucher points would begin to circulate in the economy. The Council could continue increasing the quantity of points in circulation by crediting peoples' cards by a certain amount.

7. Cards could be given to the poorest members of the community and allow them to buy purchase what they need. Farmers markets and local shops could get involved, giving them a new leash of life.

8. All of this would be done electronically and would be inexpensive to run. The points received by the council in payment for charges could be spent by the council on wages and services, so the system would not have to be subsidised with national currency.

9. In the long-term, if Councils could take in taxes, the demand for these voucher points would increase and they could circulate in greater quantities. They would, in all but name, become local legal tender. Kings would make their particular coinage into legal tender by accepting it as payment for taxes.

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"...Money exists not by nature but by law." Aristotle (Ethics, 1133)

What do you do for a living

Just a poor college student with a part-time job.

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"...Money exists not by nature but by law." Aristotle (Ethics, 1133)

Errrr... If they are so brilliant, how did they get to the state where the island, with the 9th highest GDP per capita figure in the world, was desperately in need of infrastructural development, but bereft of money, the people were taxed to the point where no more could be bled out of them and the Government was no longer deemed creditworthy by lenders?

I suppose you'd better go back to the drawing board on this one, and I'll continue tinkering with my perpetual motion machine.

Eh. what?

Ok, i see. They have the 9th highest GDP Per Capita now, in the present day. They were very poor, had no money, when the reform was first proposed.

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"...Money exists not by nature but by law." Aristotle (Ethics, 1133)

Well a part time job is a lot better than 430000 others.

However for the sake of arguement lets say you are a barber. You could issue your own currency. Done in the states and was common during the depression. Just call it a workhour valued at 20 euros or 2 haircuts. In effect you would be issueing an IOU. In reality many join the scheme and it works well.

Local currency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Worked well and ended unemployment but the socialists stamped it out. As you grow older you will realise that socialists do not care whether you are unemployed or not.




Ithaca Hours - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ithacia hour is the most famous





These Greens in England issue these

Lewes Pound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, but the IOU would be issued in exchange for national currency. It is a way for a business to get a loan from its customers if the banks do not lend. It is not really an alternative money supply.

The transition Town movement is introducing several local currencies in England. I don't really support their ideas so far. First of all, you have to buy one alternative 'pound' with a normal pound. One is simply swapping national currency for local currency. The idea is that the novelty factor will encourage people to spend more in the local area.

Secondly, the alternative pounds are not acceptable for taxes. History demonstrates that a currency must be accepted as payment for taxes or other state charges if it is to survive.

The most successful so far. We should look at that more than the others. It is similar to the scrip currency issued by Franklin's Philadelphia and the Greenback.

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"...Money exists not by nature but by law." Aristotle (Ethics, 1133)

Just how many of these threads do we need to read? There has been one about the little town in Germany and now Guernsey. Urban myth I would think.

Well none i guess, if you do not want to.


There are many local currencies. The ones in Germany are very successful. They tend to be influenced by the economist Silvio Gesel and have a circulation incentive. They reduce in value over a set time period. I don't think that that is necessary, however.

Silvio Gesell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, i hope you test your hypotheses. You will find that they are very real indeed.

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"...Money exists not by nature but by law." Aristotle (Ethics, 1133)

Does anyone here live in Shankill, co. Dublin?
They had a local currency for a while, the Skill.
I know because I was one of the administrators.
This was around 1995.

The idea was, you join, your initial balance is zero. You get a chequebook and a list of other members and their suggested goods/services on offer. A Skill was valued at one hour's work. So the two people striking a deal would agree themselves the value of the goods or services if they were other than hours working.

It worked well for a while, but fizzled out eventually because of an old problem with these systems. A problem which might now be going away, so maybe it's worth trying again.

The problem was: there was too much real money going around. So you couldn't get hold of a plumber or a window cleaner. They were too busy making Punts. When real money runs short, local currencies can rise again.

Also there was too much paperwork involved. That should be remedied now, with computers and IT skills being so ubiquitous.

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If there is a future, it will be green.