[CLUE-Talk] [OT] A Call to Action

[Matt Gushee]

On Fri, Jul 12, 2002 at 02:28:06PM -0600, Richard Knechtel wrote:

> >    essence, LETS and other local currency systems increase people's buying
> >    power by increasing the local money supply. Beginning in the mid-70s,
> >    successful LETS systems and local currencies have been established in
> >    dozens of communities throughout the industrialized world.
> 
> First : Printing your own currency is illegal if I remember correclty.

Well, you should tell that to the people in Flagstaff and Tucson, AZ,
Greenfield, MA, Brooklyn, NY, Portland, OR, and a number of other places
who have been doing it for periods of 1-10 years, and all have web sites
publicizing their efforts. 

The legality may depend on exactly how you do it and what you call it.

> Second: "Technically" using the "Barter" system is still subject to Income 
> Tax. - But as long as know one tells between the two parties doing the 
> "Bartering" your safe.

First of all, I'm not talking about barter. Barter is fine, but (in our
techie terms) it is a very tightly coupled system, with no abstract
store of values. Local currency is *currency*, albeit more limited in
scope than a national currency. In theory, it can give producers access
to any consumers in the region, and consumers access to any goods and
services in the region. In practice, of course, it depends who
participates. I don't claim it will be easy.

Second, this isn't intended to be a tax-avoidance scheme. According to
information I've read on the websites of groups that have done this,
that the official policy of the IRS is that:

 * The criteria for determining whether a transaction is taxable are the
   same whether it is paid in federal dollars, a local printed scrip, or
   electronic credits. In other words, they don't care. To them,
   economic activity is economic activity.
 * Individual participants are responsible for their own taxes, just as
   they would be with federal dollars.

I don't like the IRS any more than you do, but for me life is too short
to spend it fighting them.
> 
> Better Yet:  have many people grow their own small gardens at their homes, 
> each growing different things.  Then they "swap" back and forth. Cheaper 
> than buying produce in the grocery store, and it takes SO much better. I 
> can vouch for it. My wife grows lots of stuff in here garden.

That's a good idea. Like I said, the field is wide open. I just laid the
ideas that occurred to me.

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee at havenrock.com
http://www.havenrock.com/