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US$ As Local Currency
I realized the other day: I have been talking so much about local currencies that I overlooked the obvious fact that the United States dollar *is* a local/community currency. Whatever it’s more sophisticated implications are, it is exactly what we have been describing all along in our conversations: a currency connected to a region, to make sure that value can be traded and retained within that region.
But it’s not enough, because the region it covers (the US) is humongous, and as a result, money tends to flow out of certain sub-regions within that and into others. What I’m envisioning almost - and I have no idea how practical it really is - is a tiered system of currency: one which you can use in your immediate geographic region (say, within a hundred miles) to promote the vitality of where you live; one for the broader region, or the nation, etc; one for international trade - which would probably be linked to the internet, etc.
Lots of places to take this, but I just wanted to push that idea out there…
- [Alt$] Local Currency & Tax Evasion
- Legality of Local & Complementary Currencies
- Amy Kirschner on Local Currency
- Other Peoples’ Money
- Currency Symbols
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October 31st, 2007 at 9:03 am
Hey Tim, been watching your recent posts. Nice to see another soul waking to the mystery and potential of a new monetary system. What you describe in this post, a tiered currency system, is, I think exactly correct, in fact I think its completely inevitable, but I would describe it not as simply hierarchical tiered system, but rather (like what we are building in the open money project) as a massive multi-currency network. In such a network there are certainly portions which are hierarchic which reflect natural hierarchies of local-global geographic scale, but at the same time, the network will include currencies that cross geographical boundaries, and are themselves, perhaps embedded in other hierarchies. They key is to have a heterarchical network where individuals in the system can both join any currency in the network, and create new ones for their communities (geographic or otherwise) that reflect the wealth growth they want facilitate.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Wow cool! Are you directly involved with the Open Money project? If so, I’d like to talk with you more about it and perhaps set up an interview for my site.