[URBANTH-L]NEWS: Local Currencies Really Can Buy Happiness

[Angela Jancius]

DEVELOPMENT: Local Currencies Really Can Buy Happiness
By Matthew Cardinale*
Inter Press Service

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47042

ATLANTA, Georgia, May 30 (IPS/IFEJ) - In the face of an economic system 
which seems to be premised on environmental harm and profit-driven growth, a 
handful of communities across the U.S. and the globe have begun 
experimenting with alternative forms of local currency as a pathway to 
sustainability.

Local currencies existing today in the U.S. include the Humboldt Community 
Currency in Eureka, California; Berkshares in the Massachusetts Berkshire 
region; Bay Bucks in Traverse City, Michigan; Ithaca Hours in Ithaca, New 
York; Cascadia Hours, Corvalis Hours, and RiverHours in Oregon; Equal 
Dollars in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Madison Hours in Madison, 
Wisconsin, according to the E. F. Schumacher Society, which runs Berkshares.

Canadian community currencies are located in Calgary, Alberta; Salt Spring 
Island, British Columbia; Tamworth, Toronto and the Madawaska Valley, both 
in Ontario, which is promoting a "usury-free dollar".

There are also community currencies in Tlaxpana, Mexico; and East Sussex and 
Devon, England; as well as a regional currency based in Basel, Switzerland, 
which can also be exchanged in parts of Germany and France.

What these currencies have in common is that they represent an effort to 
respond to the pressures of globalisation, like the advent of massive chain 
stores competing with local merchants.

People in Berkshire can go to one of five participating local banks to trade 
95 cents for one Berkshare, at a five percent discount to the dollar. Then, 
they can spend Berkshares at over 400 participating local stores as a direct 
replacement for dollars, and thus save 5 cents with every Berkshare they 
spend.

Even though store owners lose the 5 cents whenever they trade Berkshares 
back for dollars at a bank - which they have to do to buy something that 
can't be produced locally - they are still typically happy with the loyal, 
local customers they keep instead of losing them to chains like Wal-Mart, 
Starbucks, and Barnes & Noble.

"Local currencies are part of what educate people about the importance of 
their small, independent businesses. It's bringing people off the Internet, 
back to Main Street, for the face-to-face exchanges. Once they're there, 
they like it," Susan Witt, founder of Berkshares, told IPS.

There are many ways having a local currency can help create a more 
sustainable economy, say leaders in the local currency movement.

First, because using a community currency forces people to buy locally, 
fewer goods have to be imported.

"By having economic transactions be so focused locally, that's definitely, 
for one thing, reducing use of fossil fuel. If it's a local farmer's 
market... food [is] produced 30 miles away instead of 3,000 miles away," 
said Steve Burke, executive director of Ithaca Hours, said.

Trade theorists might object that it is less efficient, or less productive, 
for diverse goods to be produced in many communities than it is for each 
community to specialise in producing one product for export, even factoring 
in transportation costs.

"Is it the real cost of transportation?" asked Susan Witt, founder of 
Berkshares. "Is the real cost and consequences of our dependence on fossil 
fuels to transport goods really factored into the cost? Is climate 
deterioration factored in? Is engaging in conflicts for limited supplies of 
fossil fuels?"

"Nor all the costs of unemployment in our local communities? Nor the 
hollowness of our life experiences? Nor the human costs in [other 
countries]... for maybe manufacturing practices that we would not ourselves 
allow in this country?" she wondered.

A second way in which community currencies support environmental 
sustainability is that they can lead to reduced consumption, Witt argues. 
Witt believes that people purchase more and more "stuff", not because they 
need it, but to fill a void that community currency can satisfy.

"You know the full story about the goods you purchase. You know how they 
were produced. You know the carpenter who made the table. You know who her 
children are. You realise buying the table is supporting that family," Witt 
said.

The products bought with local currency "link you to your neighbourhood, 
your place, the people of your place. They're not just stuff... they enrich 
your life the way that stuff would not. So you need less."

"One hand-knit wool sweater, coming from wool from sheep that graze on the 
hillside on the way to work, that satisfies you in a way four sweaters from 
unknown sources fails to do. You care for it in a different way," Witt said.

A third way in which community currency can lead to sustainable economy is 
communities can print the currency they need to issue interest-free, or 
non-profit loans. Allowing credit to be issued interest-free eliminates the 
need to service growing debts. High-interest debt owed by individuals, 
businesses, and governments to private banks is one of the main factors 
pushing economies to constantly grow at an exponential rate. As these 
entities struggle to service the interest on their debts with a total money 
supply that was mostly created through issuance of credit, more and more new 
debt must be created in order for the system to be stable.

Thus, because high-interest debt pushes the economy to constantly grow, it 
also pushes industrialisation into new markets, new products, and new 
technologies, which often lead to deforestation, air pollution, and the 
like.

By communities printing and issuing their own currency, in part through 
productive non-profit loans, the economy can function without the constant 
growth that is imperiling the environment.

There are at least two different models for how to organise and operate a 
local currency that local communities are using. One is used by Berkshares; 
the other was pioneered by the Ithaca Hour.

Founded in 1991, the Ithaca Hour is the oldest local currency to exist in 
the U.S. since local currencies disappeared in the 1900s. Numerous local 
currencies have since based their model on the Ithaca Hour.

Businesses become members in Ithaca Hours by purchasing a listing in the 
Ithaca Hours directory, and they receive two "hours" every year as part of 
their membership fee. Employees at these businesses then can accept hours 
instead of dollars for some of their wages. People can accept hours instead 
of dollars for services, like mowing a lawn, that they provide.

This, in addition to low-cost loans, is the primary way Ithaca Hours enter 
Ithaca's economy.

"There's a pretty fundamental difference between our model and the 
Berkshares model," Burke said. "They sell them. With ours, you can't buy 
them; you can only earn them."

They are called hours "to make a statement", Burke said. The founders 
"wanted to emphasise the relationship between time and money".

*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by 
IPS and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists -­ for 
Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).