POWER TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA!
How to Make Money During a Recession.
First, decide on a name for your currency. Hours, Shares, Bread or Spuds for instance. Then decide on a ‘motto’ or slogan to stand by, such as ‘In Each Other We Trust’. Then get some local artists to put forward ideas and thoughts on what imagery and iconography to use (something specific to your region is always good). Then engage friends, family and everyone in your immediate locality (local business too) to buy into your idea. And finally convince them (and everyone else) to use ‘your’ money everywhere (because it will be financially beneficial to them). And hey-presto: you have a self-sustaining economy, you have cash flow and you have some money in your pocket at long last.
Imagine, it would be like having a license to literally print your own money, legally (as long as ‘Uncle Sam’ gets his share). Plus you’ll have a say in its value to you, and also be able to control its intrinsic value too, because it’s essentially ‘your’ money. Plus, you decide what it’s worth to others, and, what it can buy – basically cutting out the (middle) ‘man’ and placing the power of exchange back in the hands of the people who really create wealth: citizen you.
But, wait. Hang on a second. Have we not been here before? Sure ‘community currencies’ (or local currencies) are not a new idea, but in recent years their relevance (and use) has risen to the surface again.
Susan Witt, the co-founder of BerkShares, has been consulting with officials from Newark, New Jersey, and nonprofit groups in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Alaska on how to start local currencies. "The trouble in our global financial system has people very concerned," says Witt. "They don't know how to fix it. It seems out of their control. The concept of a citizen group taking responsibility for its own regional economy and finding a way to issue a medium for exchange in its own area is such a powerful image." (Source: CNN.com)
In fact, community currencies sprung up in America during the ‘Great Depression’ for similar reasons they are becoming more popular again today. It’s like America is returning to its fragmented beginnings to find a new economical way forward. It’s as if the people this recession is affecting the most will actually be the ones who take our country out of the mess that we’re in. It’s like a financial revolution and like all revolutions it’s being led by people power.
People throughout America are waking up to the fact that ‘Uncle Sam ain’t gonna help me so I’m gonna have to help myself!’ (plus Uncle Sam is bankrupt, so …) But as manufacturing businesses and factories close throughout the land, people everywhere are turning towards beginning their own localized ‘cottage’ industries: ‘Grand Ma’s cookies sure taste good, she should sell them!’ Sound familiar?
And as every economist and every financial institution (that’s left) has an opinion on what got us into this state, and the more we sink deeper into depression the more likely it will be that when we do finally hit rock bottom, it will be the individuals who took it upon themselves to find a solution to all our wows who will be the ones that will succeed and prosper and become the new corporations and conglomerates like Ford and every other American powerhouse. Because America was built on the premise that anything is possible. Therefore, this current financial crisis can only lead, eventually, to a better future for us all. That’s if we can drag ourselves away from celebrity obsessionism, reality TV and materialistic consumerism for a moment.
So if socialized money is OK, what's wrong with socialized healthcare?
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