If anything, 2020, as bad as it was with the lockdowns and disease fear mongering by gullible true believers and public health authorities, was a great year because it began the awakening of so many people to the harsh system that has been controlling us for millennia. And why might you ask do I seem so positive in what was a horrid time. Well for starters I am an optimistic-realist. No, that isn’t an oxymoron. Despite all the chaos going on in the world, I see it all as a wonderful opportunity to start change for a sustainable world we want to see and live in.
As I say often, ‘Deconstruction has to happen before reconstruction can happen.’ Chaos is the impetus that makes us sit up and look around (see earlier post, Chaos as the Indicator of a New System Developing 1 {May 2019}). Chaos makes us come to terms with the fact that our hierarchical system is struggling to cope with all the planets problems they have created (see, Cultivating a Flourishing Future 2 – Coming to terms with the big problems {November 2018).
We don’t have to delve into the realms of conspiracy theories to recognize that monied elites and corporations have allegiance only to increasing profit margins. Whether many of the elites do it nefariously is debatable. However, there is abundant evidence that these monied elites do want to increase their power and control through their investment activities to promote their agenda’s whatever they may be. Much of that power and control is done through a utilitarian mindset where the ends justifies the means. And if we look closely at what the endgame appears to be (total control for them and subservience for everyone else) then the means becomes obvious and doesn’t need fanciful theories. The current economic system functions such that money will always go uphill to them. The only action we have to counter this is to localize our economies and retain control of them for ourselves. This seems to be the only way to end ‘The Walmart Effect,’ which harms local businesses that are in competition with ‘big box’ stores and supermarkets chains (basic supplies and food). The luxury and specialist stores offering unique goods seem to be the only ones able to survive this competitive onslaught, but that will last only as long as people have money to spend on luxuries.
I have talked about Local Economic Transfer Systems (LETS) – (see, Reconditioning Ourselves: Alternative Perspectives 4 – Economics part 3 {January 2020}; Thinking Anew – Part 16 – Inflation, Parallel Society, and Transition Communities? Part 2 {March 2022}; Becoming different – Part 3: Revamping the Economic System? – Part 1 {June 2022}) – and they are way to move past the global economic fiat currency problems that plague and control us. While the world banks consider the CBDC (Central Bank Digitial Currency) option for complete control of us all, now is the time to start a LET system in cooperation with a cooperative system to get past rampant inflation and resource supply issues that seem to be getting worse. If you have been living in a bubble and not noticing economic news, inflation is as bad as it has ever been and reserve banks are struggling to cope. I have certainly noticed it in my retirement accounts which have fallen 13% within the past year. My realism sees this trend, but my optimism sees localism as an opportunity. The one thing about LETS is that they are not controlled by big banks or national reserve banking.
LETS (known by different names around the world) are locally initiated and controlled, not-for-profit economic systems that also work like a cooperative movement in that the community organizers create a community information service that transparently records the transactions of all members the localized of system. Whatever system is selected allows all members of a community to exchange goods and services by using locally created currency that does not necessarily mean just some form of fiat currency.
LETS allow people to negotiate the value of their own hours or services, and to keep wealth in the locality where it is created. It works a lot like a cooperative in that people join the local economic system, sometimes paying a small fee to cover administrative costs. Some neighborhood groups have already begun the move to develop more community-based living and can more easily start up LETS and cooperatives. For those living in ‘neighborhoods’ where everyone is more individualistic it may be more of a challenge until economic hardships push people into the realization that they need to work together. This can work at any level, even in cities where neighborhood blocks can develop as enclaves within the city.
Each LETS system will be specific to its users but there are simple principles that apply to all of them. LETS are not bartering although bartering is certainly part of a local economic system. LETS is a full-fledged monetary or exchange system in which members exchange or earn credits from any member and spend them with anyone else on the system. The ‘credits’ are often direct local currency that is exchanged for a national currency, e.g., In Findhorn, Scotland, the ecovillage exchanges one British pound for one Findhorn pound, that can then be spent in local businesses that all subscribe to the Findhorn LETS. This ensures local trading keeps local businesses alive and that local money stays local, instead of funneling up to some corporate hierarchy.
The administration can start out simple, but would quickly require a directory of all its members and the services and trading opportunities available. The economic system can be time or even real currency in which transactions are logged in an official accounting system, which may be online or hardcopy, by an official accountant. It’s not unlike a local bank or credit union, but it stays local. All members are still obligated to maintain a positive credit and to move negative sums back to zero – after all its not a free ride. But people without much financial stability can pay through giving their time and skills to the system, where members decide the exchange rates among themselves in a transparent way. As a community, everyone understands that they all work together for the collective, but still maintain their personal sovereignty. The community is the safety net in which each person looks out for each other.
The positive aspect of LETS is that they offer the options to revitalize and rebuild community in which people seem left behind by globalization. Rather than areas of neighborhoods that have various socio-economic differences that keep them separated, LETS allow a much wider collective of people from a whole area to engage as individuals, groups, local businesses and services for the benefit of the whole community. This also has the benefit of more cooperation across the board to save money and resources that are spread more evenly to all members. The option for new enterprises within the community increase as local money creates even more localized community that can grow to include adjacent communities that offer unique options. The aim is not profit but exchange of goods and services that serve all the community.
It is important to realize that while most current LETS are focused within the existing formal markets, they do not have to be. The beauty of LETS is that they can dissociate from the global markets for community building and resilience, and re-engage as necessary for import of goods not available within a community. This has the advantage of creating many small cooperative enclaves that live with trust and intimacy among its residents, yet allows multiple small group interaction with buying power for mainstream resources and goods that need be brought in from outside the collective cooperatives.
The limitations of course are getting buy-in from all residents to create a full community and not just small communes – LETS currency only works when it is being used. LETS do not require external sources of investors to make them work. It is the collective of the community working together that makes them efficient and effective This would mean establishing social justice and fairness as a central tenet of any new community. The goal is not to live apart in our own little enclaves but to thrive as interactive self-sufficient and sovereign communities that interact for the benefit of all the collective while valuing all individuals as sovereign beings.
It’s a new (some could say an ancient) way of human living that gets away from hierarchical domination. It also helps bring in the best of technological living that when coupled with a worldview that values all life (human and nature) starts to get us on track for a sustainable world. Since localization means reduced transportation of all goods, pollution is greatly reduced (decreased fuel use), food is more organic and healthy for everyone, and farmers get direct input from the communities they serve. The increased efficiency and reduced consumer mindset increases quality of life while maintaining a good standard of living with appropriate technology in which people have more empowerment and freedom to actually work towards self-actualization (see, Personal Sovereignty 3 {November 2018}). Once we realize that when we climb out of the self-imposed rut we see a world of possibilities that brings us closer to a utopia, also recognizing that utopia is always going to be a fairytale, but we can get close to one (see, Why we stay in the rut 3 – A future of Possibilities {May 2018}).
0 Comments