This Morning 4/3/12 Devaluing Money

Devaluing Money

Currency is a medium of exchange.  Throughout the world the value of currency is generally counted in terms of money.  The exchange rates of those different forms of money are calculated based on a number of factors.  For a relatively simple explanation of the determinants that influence exchange rates, go to this website.

I can tell you, though, the Euro is worth 25% more than the US Dollar this morning.  The Swiss Franc is worth 10% more and the British Pound 38% more.  It's interesting to notice these things, although I don't consider it anything I necessarily want to know!  I'm more interested in seeing and using currency from a different perspective.

The medium of exchange - sans money - is operating constantly in our lives, whether we notice it or not.  From a thank-you gift from a company to coupons; from trading jewelry with a friend to formal bartering of services.  I have ongoing exchange of services for my piano tuning, my car repair, my handyman-type household needs, and website maintenance.

I believe in the cause of devaluing US Dollar money as a primary exchange currency because of the disparity between the classes.  If more people could exchange services for food, housing, health care, and educational opportunities, I suspect the  economic racism that exists in this country would be replaced by the necessary acknowledgment of basic human rights and responsibilities around the table.  Efforts in small communities around the country have been in existence for decades to further this cause. Local economic strength is an important motivator for citizens within a community to exchange inside their own communities.  This kind of alternative currency offers money discounts and exchange rates that keep the local economy vital.

Examples of this model include:
Ithaca Hours (NY)
BerkShares (NY)
NC Plenty (NC)
Milk Money (CA)
River Currency (WI)

This idea is universal.  In bailed-out Greece, the New York Times reported in October 2011 on

"a growing network here in Volos that uses a so-called Local Alternative Unit, or TEM in Greek, to exchange goods and services — language classes, baby-sitting, computer support, home-cooked meals — and to receive discounts at some local businesses.  Part alternative currency, part barter system, part open-air market, the Volos network has grown exponentially in the past year from 50 to 400 members.  It is one of several such groups cropping up around the country, as Greeks squeezed by large wage cuts, tax increases and growing fears about whether they will continue to use the euro have looked for creative ways to cope with a radically changing economic landscape."

As one who has finally begun a steady job where the wage earned has comforted my growing uncomfortableness with the economic issues in this country, I understand the need for even more alternative ways of allowing people to survive and thrive respectably without money as the primary currency.