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

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sat, 13 Jul 2002 12:41:30 -0600
Matt Gushee <mgushee at havenrock.com> wrote:

> While we're doing the autobiography thing, here's mine: I spent most of
> my formative years in Madison, WI, and went to college in Eugene, OR.

Eugene? No kidding. I can't remember though, did that make you a Duck or
or Beaver?

> And I think that will be my final word on the subject on this list. I'm
> not very interested in pushing ideology or in theoretical debates about
> the merits of one or another economic strategy. I'm trying to respond
> creatively to what I see as a crisis.

Ah, just as I was getting warmed up! ;-)

I read some of the stuff you linked to. Linton has some interesting ideas,
but I'm uncertain about them. He almost implies that increasing the
"currency" supply is a panacea. Then, his "London" example relies upon
essentially being endowed in British Pounds by various institutions.

I will note that I've had discussions with people on the subject of
monetary "velocity", and other issues related to keeping "currency" within
a community. Apparently this has been studied, with a correlation to the
overall wealth of communities. But I don't know if this exactly correlates
with creating a new type of currency, as opposed to doing a better job or
retaining the wealth (er, money?) that comes into your community.

Just as a hypothetical, suppose these LETS take off. Eventually, you need
a way to exchange "currency" among them. One of the things enhanced by a
standard money system is mobility. How do LETS deal with that? The US
national currency evolved from a situation where banks where minting their
own, at least partially as a result of the need to have something which
would be recognized and valued across the country.

The notion of economic ills being explained away by a monetary shortage
seems awfully facetious to me. The obvious question being: what is the
reason for that monetary shortage.

I admit that the paradigms discussed are awfully foreign, and so within
our current monetary context, have difficulty seeming "real". I suspect
I'll read a bit more about it. But I guess I'm doubtful about whether some
other form of currency would really be better than what we have now.

<Yurts, co-ops, communes>
Well, I have discussed the possibility of communal land ownership with
some folks. The idea being that if we all shared the desire to get a large
chunk of land, it would be easier to do that together, than seperately.
Presumably, we would all work on building each other's houses, and keep up
the communal gardens, etc. It would even be possible to share other
facilites, such as a laundry room and kitchen, thus acheiving further
economies, although there are drawbacks. A major question is how to
dispose of any parties interest, upon their demise, or otherwise wanting
"out".

Well, Matt, I won't flog this if you're bailing on it. But thanks for the
info.

jed

-- 
We're frogs who are getting boiled in a pot full of single-character
morphemes, and we don't notice. - Larry Wall; Perl6, Apocalypse 5