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Last modified 6 March 2009, First
published 26 Feb 2009
Other
types of Money?
SpiriLogic
moderators:
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Global: Peter
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Netherlands:
Iwanjka
We read at
a news site somebody stating that it might be a good idead to have several forms
of money (currency) next to each other. We agree. One money system gives no
escape when it doesn’t work anymore or collapses (as we are threatened by
nowadays).
So we
started doing some research. Currently, no real alternative exists (off course?).
So, what to do? We decided to put our energy in assembling ideas and various
initiatives and combine them on this page. See what happens.
When you
read this, and know of an interesting concept or existing system, please mail
it to contact@spirilogic.com, we
will list it here.
Concepts
and links we encountered and found worthwhile mentioning:
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No
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Short name
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Description,
status and further information
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1
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Transition towns
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Trigger: “how can our community respond to the
challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?”
Main concept: do local exchange of values, e.g.
services (cooking, cleaning, etc.), food, etc. Links:
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http://www.transitiontowns.org/
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Already 146 transition towns!
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Somebody (Mike
Adams) who took a training, and wrote a story
about it:
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A interesting
discussion on local vs global sustainable initiatives (containing other
interesting links and names).
SpiriLogoc feeling:
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Good concept
with sustainable background. Avoids ‘possession’ thinking. Boosts social
cohesion and ‘help each other’ feeling. Concept has a structure which
people understand and feel good with (not too complex, too much work, etc.)
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Potential
drawback: does not seem to be suitable to become a global value exchange
system. What about taxes, at some moment this element pops in when a too
large part of the economy flows ‘over’ the transition town concept? How do
you connect with the current currency (eg. euro, dollar)? How do you settle
your retirement or mortgage with the transition town concept?
Primary
TalkSpot: We don’t know
of any TalkSpot yet.
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2
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Ethical Bank
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Trigger: local sustainable systems. A relation (Bruce B. Cahan) is establishing a
GoodBank (Ethical bank) in the USA. This is good news. See http://www.goodbank.info/w/ or this link for more
information. This concept is a initiative of the Ashoka changemakers
network. Quote: “GoodBank will unleash new tools to measure,
advocate and transact regional social impacts (including environmental,
equal justice, public health and other subsets of social causes and
concerns).”
SpiriLogic
feeling:
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Good
plan, clear non capitalistic, ecological and social focus.
·
What
this concept ads in addition to transition towns is the connection with the
current money system (dollar, euro).
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What
the concepts misses at this moment is an implementation, so we don’t know
if it will work. The detailed ‘logic’ for implementing the concept haven’t
been prooven yet, but we will follow this initiative...
Primary
TalkSpot: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/bruce-b-cahan
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3
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The concept ‘Money’
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Off course one should take notice of what money actually
is. We take the Wikipedia as main source:
“Money is generally considered to
have the following characteristics, which are summed up in a rhyme found in
older economics textbooks: "Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a
store." That is, money functions as a medium of exchange, a unit
of account, a standard of deferred payment, and a store
of value.[2][7][8] ”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money
And another llink : http://finance.mapsofworld.com/money/types/,
stating that there are mainly the following types of money: commodity, fiat
and fuduciary.
But the underlying concept or currency remains
euro, dollar, etc....
Question to the visitor of this page: Does anyone
now were the word ‘Money’ derives from? contact@spirilogic.com
Primary
TalkSpot: We don’t know
of any TalkSpot yet.
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4
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Ducth only: Kleureneconomy (coloreconomy)
No
implementations known in other countries yet.
No English
articles known yet
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Link: http://kleureneconomie.nl/inleiding/kleuren/
This is a blend of transitions towns and other
concepts. Within this idea value has three dimensions: Red (Light, Light,
Love), Green (Earth - material containing life energy), Blue (Other waste
such as water and air pollution).
SpiriLogic feeling:
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nice concept
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maybe a bit to
complex
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we feel that
the element ‘certainty on value’ misses: when I have today 1000 Green, what
will it be worth in 10 years? Were does the ‘money’ come from? We think
total value ‘amount’ on earth should be fixed, or at least fixed per
person, otherwise prices settling cannot take place properly.
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Their website
and system (ICT basis) seems quite professional and well developed,
concepts seem well documented and detailed.
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Already quite some
social acceptance. People feel probably good by the ideas, not too complex,
etc.
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We miss other
‘society’ aspects such as helping the poor and weak (focus is ecological).
Primary
TalkSpot: We don’t know
of any TalkSpot yet.
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5
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Dutch only:
Article called ‘ecotopia’
No English
articles known yet
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Link: http://www.jonghv.nl/spino
Interesting article describing two dimensional
currency: next to money we have eco’s. Eco’s are budgeted centrally,
eg. each person gets per year 200 eco’s which can be used to consume earth
resources or to pollute it.
SpiriLogic feeling:
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nice concept
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simple
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it has some
kind of ‘scarcity’ rule of value implemented
(something we haven’t seen yet with eg. the coloreconomy concept),
something we feel crucial to make a value system work.
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no
implementation or try out yet
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We miss other
‘society’ aspects such as helping the poor and weak (focus is ecological).
Primary
TalkSpot: http://www.jonghv.nl/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,60/
[Dutch only, web forum]
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6
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...?
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[We didn’t find other concepts at this moment... if
you know of one...]
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You can
send news / initiatives to contact@spirilogic.com
And some
further elaboration: what are the ‘requirements’ of the ideal ‘money’? We
will start a topic on this here soon...
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