The Milwaukee Community Currency Story
December 7th, 2008Sometimes, I read a story, grit my teeth and pray that people don’t submit it to me by the dozens. Oh well.
People are SO HAPPY about this. * Holding my head in my hands *
My problem with this article is this sentence:
And it’s completely legal.
Oh sure. And what currency will the business owners use to settle up with the maniac fascist tax authorities? Not Humboldt Gold or Milwaukee Cheddar Heads or Eugene Tofu Flake Bucks. If they want to avoid having guns pointed at their heads, they will pay the IRS in Federal Reserve Notes.
So yeah, let it rip with your local currency schemes, if it makes you feel good. Let’s just not get confused about the reality of what’s actually happening here, which is, the Matrix doesn’t care what made up script you use as long as Federal Reserve Notes come out the other end. Devise a system where people are actually conducting commerce outside of the tax framework and watch what happens. The second the Feds get wind of it, look out.
Stories like this are meant to make you believe that once you’re thinking outside the box, you’re out of the box. Actually, what you find outside the box is another box.
All the time, dumbshits accuse me of being negative; not seeing the good side of things. (With this Obama pathology, especially.) If pointing out the underlying nature of a thing makes me a negative person, why are you reading this site? Go away. Please, close your browser window and stop reading Cryptogon. Go drive your Prius to the icecream collective and buy a double hemp seed rebellion cone with your Lick Bush Bucks.
Note: I tried to find a link to an Obama-themed iPod case to include in my little rant, but, by some astonishing miracle, I couldn’t find one.
I’m not saying that the government is all powerful, all seeing and all knowing. Not at all. There are all kinds of deals that people can work out with each other that nobody else needs to know about.
I would suggest working within the food complex first of all. In areas where people raise their own animals, grow their own food and save their own seeds, this happens automatically. These people know that governments are simply running protection rackets for crooked corporate middlemen. There is a very healthy skepticism of government in these circles and idiotic laws are often ignored with contempt and prejudice. If you’re ever lucky enough to buy outlaw meat from an unregistered home kill operator, as I have, drop to your knees and kiss the dirt. Know that you’re in a good place.
There’s a saying in rural New Zealand (and probably lots of rural areas) that goes something like this, “If you want to do anything that makes sense, the last thing you should do is ask permission to do it.”
So, food. Focus on food. When you produce your own food, or buy/barter for it with someone who produced it, you kick fascists in the nuts and gouge out their eyes. Vegan pacifists may send warm lovey dovies and good vibrations to the enemy, as long as they’re growing their own and buying/bartering for same. If you’re dealing with the realities of natural food, then the currency doesn’t matter.
Better yet, make food the currency.
Via: Chicago Tribune:
They may be talking funny money, but it’s not funny business.
Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.
“You have all these people who have local currency, and they’re going to spend it at local stores,” said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. “They can’t spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store.”
Incentives could be used to entice consumers into using the new money. For example, perhaps they could trade $100 U.S. for $110 local, essentially netting them a 10 percent discount at participating stores.
It’s not a new concept—experts estimate there are at least 2,000 local currencies all over the world—but it is a practice that tends to burgeon during economic downturns. During the Great Depression, scores of communities relied on their own currencies.
And it’s completely legal.
As long as communities don’t create coins, or print bills that resemble federal dollars, organizations are free to produce their own greenbacks—and they’d don’t even have to be green.
In Wisconsin, could that mean dough that looks like cheese?
About being called negative, I hear ya. Most of my friends and family are conducting a circle-jerk in celebration of Obama being elected — “It’s such a breakthrough, how can you be so cynical?!” But I don’t consider myself cynical, I just focus on the fact that we’re at war (officially) in at least 2 countries, Iran’s (officially) in our crosshairs, and Pakistan is next in line. And Obama is on board with all of it, regardless of his skin color. These are called “basic facts”, and we would do well to keep them in mind. But that’s not how they see it. They don’t give a shit about the facts, they’re swept up in the hype of it all, and that feels a whole lot better than facing reality.
All societies have their myths, but I think ours is the most screwed up because the “smartest” and “most successful” think they have no myths. And that, of course, makes their myths much, much more powerful. The Obama-Saviour myth is extremely powerful, from what I’ve seen. Given the last 8 years, good cop has never looked so good.
Not only do I agree with Kevin, by way of example, let it be known that it is possible to not only trade our organic eggs for raw honey — but you can do it across borders. Often it’s just “keepin’ it in the family”, as it is in this case as well.
We’re also encouraging the local nephew who is training in the butchering arts, with our daily feeding schedule squarely in mind.
It’s not just about DIY, but finding your own way of integrating with the local DIY “networks” that have always existed — though they are thinner than ever at the front end of the 21st century in the “civilized” world.
Becoming a producer, and I don’t mean in the Hollywood sense, is perhaps one of the most honorable acts one can undertake in life. To share it with others and benefit from the sharing is to regain one’s sense of justice and fair play.
Bullseye Kev.
“If you want to do anything that makes sense, the last thing you should do is ask permission to do it.”
This also strongly applies to swimming in an office environment, in moderation. If you ask permission to do anything worthwhile, you´ll probably waste time scaling the hierarchy, and then you´ll be the guy who didn´t accomplish anything or worse, receive a paycheck for being mediocre.
The trick at any scale is finding the right balance; community currencies can save costs on interest even if the cash-flows on personal income are converted to fiat money and paid in taxes. If you go full out then it needs to be en negro, as they say around here. The interesting question is, will the greater scale-ability of fiat-complaint schemes (convertible scrip) give a greater advantage than simpler, do-it-yourself barter circles? Maybe, that could be the economic paradox of the information age.
In any case, food-based commodity baskets are definitely recommended in any local currency system.