Piece by Piece: Grassroots Building Blocks of a Transformed Economy.
by Dawn Nakano and Thad Williamson
Who Is My Neighbor? Economics As If Values Matter
Sojourners, April 1994Content:

Page 2 of 4
Community Money and Community Values

Countless communities and entire cities and regions have been devastated by changing economic conditions over which they have no control. Two decades of capital flight and economic stagnation have left crumbling infrastructures, high rates of unemployment and underemployment, and decimated social services. Yet, the "flight" of capital or the decline of an industry really only means that the money leaves town. Economically depressed communities still have all the materials necessary for the community to thrive. The skills and labor of the people remain--only the paper used to measure their value is gone.

Hundreds of economically depressed communities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and England have built Local Economic Trading Systems (LETS): Alternative economies in which the true wealth of the community--the skills and resources of its residents--is valued and used productively despite often harsh effects of greater economic circumstances. By creating their own interest-free, inflation-free currency and partially de-linking from the larger market economy, these communities have begun to fill the holes left by limited cash supplies.

In 1987, Co-op Resources and Service Project started the first U.S. LETS demonstration project in Los Angeles. L.A. LETS, which has had nearly 300 members since it began in 1987, enables people to barter goods and services using a local currency approximate in value to the Federal dollar. A computer system records all transactions and keeps track of members' trading activity. Just a few of the diverse skills and services available to L.A.

LETS members are: desktop publishing, finish carpentry, legal advice, babysitting, word processing, voice and piano lessons, home canned sauces from organically grown produce, acupuncture, and use of a condo in a nearby ski resort.

In addition to the obvious benefits of obtaining goods and services without the need for cash, participants speak of the community-building benefits of local economic trading. Steve Ediger, an active member of LA LETS, grew up in a rural community in the midwest. "If you needed to build a fence," he explains, "you called up your neighbors with the understanding that they might call you later and ask for help adding a room to their house." He describes LA LETS as an "urban-style" version of the informal exchanges between neighbors that took place as a matter of course in the community he grew up in. Trading with someone through LETS, says Ediger, is "more interactive and cooperative than hiring somebody...It's more like you're working together."

Another innovative experiment which circumvents the dominant commodity economy and emphasizes the interdependence of members in a community is "time dollar" programs. In dozens of communities in 31 states and four countries, residents are trading, for example, an hour of babysitting for an hour of home repair. A neighborhood "bank" keeps track of service hours, and each hour a person works earns an hour credit. The idea is different from volunteerism--instead, there is a direct, cooperative exchange between equals, not of goods, but of time and expertise.

Edgar Cahn and Jonathan Rowe have documented how neighborhoods which have tried Time Dollar programs have experienced an explosion of neighborliness and a real sense of community. Anna Minyares, director of a Miami time sharing program, speaks of "going back to the roots, where neighbor used to help neighbor, where neighbors used to trust neighbors, where your problem was shared with neighbors."

Elderly persons and others excluded from mainstream economic life report bolstered levels of self-esteem and energy through participation in the program--as Minyares notes, "it's that sense of belonging...of feeling useful in society." At the same time, the essential economic good of security is established--if I'm in need, I will not have to go it alone or buy some expensive solution on the market. I need not live in fear.

Local currency, trading, and barter systems embody a cooperative principle which helps transform dormant communities into breathing social organisms.

In the experiments illustrated above a consciousness shift takes place--away from assuming dependence on the market and buying commodities to meet needs and toward a recognition that neighborliness and a vital community are just as important in improving quality of life. Participants in time sharing programs, local trading systems and other such experiments have succeeded in relocating economics within a holistic vision of healthy community life.

1. 2 . 3 . 4