follow the money....

a "credit crisis" inevitably derives

from the nature of the money in circulation

... lets define money as we know it - a legal tender, national currency :

Issued under these criteria – • money has value entirely

independent of it's users.• users are not involved in the

process of money valuation or credit creation

• A dollar's a dollar, a yen's a yen - whatever your opinions.

In every sense, it's their money, that we get to use only if we can earn it or borrow it.

1 1 Considered valuable in itself, so it will be accepted

anywhere, 

2 2 In limited supply, maintaining its value via scarcity

33 Issued by trusted authorities like central banks and

governments

So, where does this leave us?

tankedMoney comes, money goes and the level in my tank rises and falls. Sometimes it's high and I have choices, sometimes low and I don't have so many. And it's the same for all - individuals,families, businesses, non-profits, governments and communities  We've all got our money in our tanks, and it all comes from somewhere else.  We need the money for the stuff we need, so when we get the money, we spend the money.

Then the money's gone and we need another injection.

 It's a classic recipe for addiction.   

trickle down economics

Think of the trickle down economy as a series of pools .

Our pool sits below a multitude of pools, some providing us with money. Below us there's a vast field of potential receivers.   Of the millions of pools, we only connect with a few.

Does anyone think the money they spend somehow goes around and adds to their income?

Can we somehow spend ourselves into work?

Not a chance.   Do the math if you need to.

It is the same for everyone.

Whether you are an individual, a family, business, corporation or government, it is the same. Each has their container

…and is getting from a whole bunch of others

…and is giving to a whole of others

NONE of us have significant control of the money flow.  

NO control worth having anyway.

 

over the barrel

hustle

We are running on our treadmills, trying to survive, because we have to.

  There's no free lunch, you've got to have the money to do the deal, you've got to have the deal to make the life

and when our money is spent it’s gone.

gonewe don't know where it's gonewe just know it's gone and not coming back even if we knew where, there's nothing we could do with that information and it doesn't remember us at all, much less owe us any loyalty or care.

But this is common knowledge, so obvious that nobody gives it a thought. Of course that's what it does.  How else could money work? 

Is this news? "So it's always going away!  So what?"

What if we had money that came back?

What if we were to have money that would go round and come back again?   Money that will circle around when we spend it and come back to us in time We don't know the patterns, and that doesn't matter - the money comes back

In small networks it comes back quickly, in large networks it's slower. It’s always coming back, always there for the earning

what's that worth?

money go round

value proposition

 Consider two $20 bills

- one you know is never coming back.  - the other you know will come back which are you going to spend first?

The difference between the dollar that goes and comes back …. and the dollar that just goes away

Greshams Law from the 1960’s - "bad money drives out good".  But Gresham was thinking of competing commodity currencies - having no idea of circulating network or community currencies.

what’s in this for me?

I’M BUSY!!! I have enough trouble focusing my attention on getting regular money in this crazy mixed up world.

- What's in this for me? What’s my ROI? - What is value of community currencies that come back? - Is it even worth my time to explore this? Generally speaking, using community money will result in atangible change that is positive, persistent, and substantial.    There will be a ”substantial” noticeable change with a 10% increase in the local economy. So lets aim for at least that. 

patternsfor all economic transactions -

there's a transfer of a goods or services in one direction

transferred from me to you, from you to him - at each juncture the money flows in the opposite direction - the two patterns are identical - they lay over each other - one would not happen without the other every economic event, every exchange between an A and a B, has something "real" going one way, and something imaginary going the other. the pattern of an economy is determined by the patterns that money is inclined to follow  different money forms support different patterns of trading   

community way test case

Community way currency is an approach to locally based fund-raising that can provide substantial long term support to many areas of need.  Donations in community way $ connect three sectors of the local economy - community service organizations, businesses and the people. Each gains from the recirculation of the community way money, and nobody loses cash. This program raises funds for community needs and ignites local and regional open money collaborations.

The Community Way currency system is well considered and verified under adverse economic conditions.

Businesses donate 1000 community way dollars per employee to community organizations and projects of their choice by opening a cw$ account.

Community Way is a business loyalty program that is good for the community.

Beneficiary community organizations accept the donations by opening cw$ accounts and spending the cw$ at participating businesses.

Topping up staff wages, rewarding volunteers and hiring more people.

People fund the projects they want to support by exchanging normal money (cdn$) for community way dollars (cw$) dollar for dollar.

Some examples -

groceries at 20%, retailers at 30-40% restaurants at 50%.

People who have earned and/or bought cw$ spend them at participating businesses at the published rates of acceptance.

They get tax credits on donations and they collect taxes on the whole amount of the sale, just like normal money.

Businesses spend the cw$ with other participating businesses, pay staff bonuses, hire local contractors, and so on.

Businesses support the community and build customer loyalty. Groups and projects have more money to work with. People get to spend their money twice.

The new business-backed money circulates within the community, creating common wealth

  Normal money gets harder to come by in an economic downturn      If there isn't a credit crisis yet, there will be one soon enough

We can produce the same value - like we have always done.     Community currencies give us money that goes around.

Community way is an effective community currency test case.

Michael LintonFollow the Money 2009

OpenMoney.org MWL@openmoney.org

crisis or opportunity?