Greece on the breadline: cashless currency takes off

[Earth_First]

In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil,jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.

None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work – repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light – for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.

In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people's accounts.

Tems has been up and running for barely 18 months, said Maria Choupis, one of its founder members. Prompted by ever more swingeing salary cuts and tax increases, she reckons there are now around 15 such networks active around Greece, and more planned. "They are as much social structures as economic ones," she said. "They foster intimacy and mutual support."

http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency?cat=world&type=article

[madokie]

1. Been practicing this for years here

We refer to it as bartering.

[Earth_First]

2. Yep.

There's a similar system in Ithaca, NY in central NY that has been doing this for some time now.

I'm sure there are pockets of communities elsewhere doing similar programs...

[Harmony Blue]

35. The barter system was the staple

of Greece thousands of years ago. Actually, in rural areas and villages this tradition has continued to the modern day. Most people don't realize that other than a handful of metropolitan cities, that Greece has thousands of villages. The barter system never went away in Greece, but it is starting to spread into the cities which is making an impact.

[madokie]

39. No middle man to rip you off.

I like the idea but one needs to pay taxes as our government doesn't or shouldn't run on iou's forever and I don't want to think what life would be like without government.

[CanonRay]

3. Behold the future.

I need to get my skills up...

[DCBob]

4. This is great.. we need to do this here.

It's like an alternative economy.

[Zalatix]

5. If this system takes off, the whole global economy will collapse

There goes the rich's dream of serfdom and social darwinism for the 99%.

This is great... and would be absolutely miraculous on a global level.

[socialist_n_TN]

13. Trust me Zal, if this system takes off.........

it'll wind up being illegal as hell. Because the rich won't ALLOW anything to get in the way of their dreams of serfdom and social darwinism for the 99%.

This is a safety valve to allow the people to think they've got a way to get around banker imposed austerity while the bankers put the austerity in place. As soon as they think that they've got everything under control, they'll start out by taxing all transactions in these exchanges and making any barter OUTSIDE of the exchanges illegal (probably by calling it tax evasion). If that doesn't destroy the model, they'll criminalize them.

[Zalatix]

21. They don't have enough room in their jails already.

This movement in Greece already looks like it's out of control in size and scope. If the Plutocrats let this fester they might as well nuke the country.

I am getting the feeling that this barter thing is growing faster than people realize.

[socialist_n_TN]

23. I actually hope you're right about the growth thing........

That will just make more and more of the working class in Greece radicalized WHEN they come down on it. You know you're on the brink of a revolution when EVERYBODY is a criminal, including Mom and Pop.

[JDPriestly]

32. Happened here in the Midwest during the early years of the Depression.

People traded, for example, eggs for milk, skills and work for food. It worked, but it did not replace money. It kept people going during really tough times.

[OneGrassRoot]

38. +1 n/t

[hack89]

24. How does government fund a social safety net in such a system?

How to the poor, the old, the sick, the uneducated thrive in such a system? What if you have no skills that anyone needs? What if manual labor is all you can offer - looks like you have condemned millions to near serfdom.

And how do you establish a social safety net for the young, old and sick in such a system? Without taxes how do social systems get funded.

[Zalatix]

25. They don't. Then again the Plutocrats will get rid of those safety nets anyway.

This way, though, the Plutocracy's collective skin gets put smack dab into the game.

If the 99% is going to suffer, then the 1% gets to suffer, too.

This will be a lesson that future aspiring Plutocrats will remember with as much tears and remorse as their victims. Mutual assured destruction is the only way out at this point.

[hack89]

26. Sounds like the entire scheme is a libertarian's wet dream.

everyman for himself with the smartest, the skilled, the educated rising to the top of the heap.

[Zalatix]

28. Libertarians will be the first to die. Because the most important currency in that world is

your relationships with others.

That's the second most important thing to cultivate in a barter environment or a hyperinflationary situation; the first, of course, is your ability to produce food.

[hack89]

29. So all those food importing countries will starve?

there are massively overpopulated and poor countries that could never survive in such a system. Existence farming cannot feed the world.

[Zalatix]

30. That's a problem, yes, but the fix is already in.

You do realize that the whole point of this economy is mass de-population, right? No cattle cars this time, just outright starvation. Get rid of the Greek barter craze and it'll happen anyway. The Plutocrats want it to happen. Ever wonder why food prices are skyrocketing outside the US and rising like crazy in the US? That's why.

[Harmony Blue]

36. Actually that is not accurate

The countries often labeled as LDC are often considered agricultural societies as they haven't moved on to an industry or technology. Furthermore, the MDC's of the world are often doing most of the importing of foods. It is true that there are some LDC African nations that import food, but they do so, because they are trying to convert their society to an industrial one to improve standard of living. If a situation came into play where they would have to go back to an agricultural society they could do it. Most of the food imported into Africa is in canned goods anyways, so lets not overstate the quality compared to growing food fresh and locally (it can't compare).

[JDPriestly]

33. The exchange limits the numbers of credits you can accumulate or owe.

No one gets rich from this exchange. It just helps people through very tough times. It will not replace a money economy. No need to worry.

[hack89]

34. The post I was replying to expressed the opposite thought.

I have no problem with such an exchange to help people through tough times.

[socialist_n_TN]

27. "Then again the Plutocrats will get rid of those........

safety nets anyway." EXACTLY. In fact that's the WHOLE POINT OF AUSTERITY. That and breaking working class organizations.

As to the other poster's question, I would suspect that, if left to the people themselves, they WOULD take care of the ones who can't take care of themselves. It wouldn't be the most efficient way of doing it, but I believe that an effort would be made by the people.

[fasttense]

6. Notice it always comes back to food at some point.

You can't eat gold or money. In the end, you have to barter for or buy food.

[xchrom]

7. Excellent. Nt

[moparlunatic]

8. So it seems to me

You had better have some skills, or hope that someone with skills will be nice enough to share the product of their work. Here in America there will be a lot of hungry people, no thanks. I won't sign up for those stupid rewards cards at stores, why would I want every single monetary transaction I do to be logged and monitored. Not a fan, sorry.

[MattBaggins]

20. Talk about there and back again

What does this have to do with logging of store cards.

As for the "skills" problem I suppose all the "I manage people" types will be SOL. Strange but my eyes are still dry.

[tsuki]

9. Can you see the Villagers agreeing to this:

"The Greek parliament recently passed a law encouraging "alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development", including exchange networks such as Volos's, giving them official non-profit status for tax purposes."

[Zalatix]

22. Ouch, the Plutocrats just got stung...

[lunatica]

10. The silver lining shineth

Although it'll be necessary to have chickens as payment for those doctor visits.

[SoCalDem]

11. Bartering is part of many societies...more so at times like these

People do not stop "needing" when their money source dries up. People with skills will always prevail.

[Larry Ogg]

12. Now that’s just messed up…

If all the workers of the world stopped using the bankster’s worthless paper in exchange for the products of labor, how would the ruling class ever survive?

[TheKentuckian]

14. Thats what paramilitary police and mercs are for, to put such efforts down before they "get out of

hand".

Too much of that and we'll get the run away slave and/or the mob treatment.

They didn't set up these money funnels and systems of control to allow us to walk away and ignore them, they'll hit hard before their juice dries up.

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Yep. Said the same up above.........

They won't let it stay legal if it REALLY starts to interfere with their commerce. It's a safety valve to let the people of Greece think they have a way around austerity until they can fully implement it (austerity). When they think they've got it under control, they come down hard on these exchanges. Probably call it tax evasion.

[TheKentuckian]

17. Yup, yup and our resident neolibs will be leading the chorus

Hollaring about their culture of evasion and such shit.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. Of course they will.......

Can't have something that benefits PEOPLE and hurts capital. Why, that would be *gasp* socialism. Oh the HORRORS!

Lest there's any doubt from anyone, that last part was

[Harmony Blue]

37. There is nothing they can do to stop it

Greece is a very mountainous region and the thousand of villages are away from city centers of Greece isolated from the socio-political matrix that is Globalization. All the news reports of Greece are about people starving in the city centers but the villages are seeing a resurgence of activity.

[Larry Ogg]

16. I doubt that there could be a more truthful answer.

We can only hope that the day will come when enough of the working class wakes up, and see's these criminals for what they are; and deal with them once and for all.

But I must agree, their not going to go away without a fight. They might rather destroy the world, then let the slaves control their own lives.

But then they might destroy the world anyway.

[socialist_n_TN]

19. The last sentence is why the whole system must be........

overthrown and reconfigured. The WILL destroy the world if they're not stopped. The pursuit of profit takes prescendence over saving the world.

[Larry Ogg]

31. When it comes to the pathological greedy...

Absent any restraint, there is no limit to what they will do, as the end justifies the means, and consequences seem to be something they rarely worry about...

Hopefully people will wake up before it's to late, and see the ruling class not as royalty, but as predators.