Comments on: Local Currency for Washtenaw County?

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:49:54 +0000

Adding a note for the archives from a reader who just recently found this article: "... there has been a county wide local currency in place amongst disabled people in the community since 2004. It’s called the Washtenaw Talent Exchange Network, and is administrated by Americorps and the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living." [link]

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:01:31 +0000

So the $6,000 came from AADA? for shame.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:26:48 +0000

Sorry, I had to leave and failed to finish the thought. The thing that strikes me about that is the idea of democratic control. What do either of those things mean when applied to money?

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:12:22 +0000

Or perhaps people understand but just disagree about its feasibility?

By: Publius2012-VT

Publius2012-VT — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:09:31 +0000

I am surprised at the negativity towards local currency on this forum! Perhaps people do not know who it benefits themselves and the community?

Thomas Greco’s Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, is a great resource. I will quote him here:

The purpose is
“1. reduce reliance on conventional money and markets, and/or 2. bring money and markets under local, democratic control” (p. 48).

I suggest that we should not assume the U.S. greenback is a reliable currency. Over $12 trillion was just printed in the past year’s bank bailouts!

“Within our local economies there is plenty of demand for goods and services that remains unfulfilled, and there are plenty of skills and talents which go unused. Why can’t the unused resources be employed to fill the unment needs? Mainly, it is because there is a general lack of money circulating within the local economy, and what money there is does not reach those who are most in need. Official money does not remain in circulation for very long within the local economy.” (p. 14)

Best of luck with localization!

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:30:26 +0000

Ah, the old “People’s Republic of” gag. It just never gets old, does it?

By: John Dory

John Dory — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:19:58 +0000

The “People’s Republic of Washtenaw” to issue its own currency? How about “Moscow on the Huron” as the capital?
Let’s put a portrait of that great statesman Leigh Greden on the “currency”.

What about enforcing counterfeiting violations?

20/20 or some other investigative news show a number of years back showed the disaster that occurred when pepole joined “bartering clubs” and lost their homes in exchange for some worthless coupons that no one wanted to accept as value.

The tragic part is that somebody’s money was squandered on this jokeof a study.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:22:57 +0000

I agree that this seems to be a waste of money, and just creates additional overhead of tracking and managing this local currency. I have no problem supporting local businesses today with cash or credit cards. There are many better uses for $6000 that this study!

By: Bob Martel

Bob Martel — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:36:37 +0000

Hi Al Feldt, Yes, I agree that I appear to have confused the purpose of the DEXMIL initiative with the intentions of the Ann Arbor currency initiative. Blame my confusion on the context of the article. In any event, I doubt the usefulness of the Ann Arbor Currency project and still find it amazing that so much time and energy appears to be spent on this. I am glad, however, that your neighbors in Dexter find the DEXMIL project useful in promoting neighborliness.

By: Let's Get Real

Let's Get Real — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:29:55 +0000

I’ll go, and I’ll listen. I can’t believe there is a grant to study this – more silly waste. Is this a shovel ready project that creates jobs? Seems the only job created here will be the unbelievable administrative task of tracking these “bucks” I can envision all kinds of problems: disagreement of the value of X# of hours of my service vs yours; my “bucks” went through the wash or the dog ate them; I’m old and I don’t have the capability to do tasks; the product or service I want isn’t available in the program; the product or service has been overvalued; and on and on. Let’s Get Real here – this will be so labor intensive that the value of the buck will be reduced by the cost of administration.