Volos, Greece: ditch Euro and forward to Barter

[Luke]

Greek town develops bartering system without euro. As Greece wonders whether its debt crisis will eventually spell its exit from the euro, one town in the centre of the country, Volos, has formed an alternative local currency.

Hmm. Wonder how this pan out.

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[Dukes4monny]

It is good to see a community getting back together and finding out that the bankers money isn't required. Thanks for posting.

The following video shows how a free thinking and resourceful Spanish town is planning to 'pay-off' the crooked bankers

[Luke]

'pay-off' the crooked bankers

heh.

Now, the problem, from my perspective, is two fold.

(1) the central banking system, with fractional reserve and unlimited printing is crooked by design

(2) people did play along this system, as long as it suited their needs i.e. when they were able to take out debt to buy useless shit .. and now they whine, because what they considered to be a freebie have strings attached. They knew it but chose to ignore it.

Current state of economic system is effect of 7 decades of complete idiotic behaviour on part of THE PEOPLE. After all, bankers at no point needed to resolve to guns: people took out credit voluntarily. Only when they refused to pay (in say, South America), armed repo men showed up.

Banks own governments. Governments own guns, and facing either standing up to banking clique or allowing robbery of population it oversees, it will without doubt choose allowing wholesale wealth extraction of population. Especially knowing that same clique owns not only all governments and armed forces in neighbourhood, but also opposition in the country.

The only instance where it have not happened is Iceland (and you might speculate if the fact that there is nothing of value to rob from relatively small population had more to do with it, then with close knit community that was capable to actually make it's government accountable to them, not bankers.. 50/50 from my POV. Bombarding Iceland back to stone age by U.S. Air force kinda looks like bad PR, no?)

Back to the point we have :

(1) a parasite
(2) population more than willing to take parasite in.

Even dealing with current parasite, does not immunize people from being bloody stupid.

Moreso, this voluntary stupidity damaged all the intricate interconnections that make economic system - and taking out the bankers now will not solve that problem. The real capital has been drained away, and without it, you only have subsistence. Now the system can be rebuild, but people need to re-learn it's significance. Instead we have relapse of harebrained "solutions" that seek to re-create the "high", that was produced by parasite in first place.

Like a junkie facing "going cold turkey", instead of addressing the addiction, the population seeks to find means to get another shot. That is real thing to deal with.

[Luke]

just adding to the above: I consider the "Volos scheme" to be a step in right direction : establishing an economic system independent to central-banc-controlled one.

Most powerful tool we have in dealing with situation is to see-through the scheme, where proximity to the central-bank controlled printer dictates ones wealth.

Instead, we should seek to dictate value ourselves by participating in the market without controlled wealth-proxy. After all, economy is a network of interactions among people, not some critter devised by academia. It is human action: appraised, awarded or punished NOT numbers and statistics. It is network that binds society together. Without taking it back, there is no future.

[Dukes4monny]

You are spot on Luke. We need a method to replace money which takes care of the exchange of our 'energy'. The money system allows a few to extract energy from everyone else without any input of energy on their part, that is just the start of the problems.
Another problem is that our energy that has been taken from us is being used to suppress or extinguish some of our brothers and sisters from around the globe.
One of the biggest problems is that they are also extracting the energy from our host: Mother Earth. If this energy was being used for the common good, then it might be justifiable, but it isn't.
Money = our energy.

Here is a barter market in Argentina. We needs these everywhere:



An interesting thread Luke, thanks for starting it.

[Odah]

the barter network springin up ..in greese and other aroudn the world .. using modern tech to improve on ols system are the answer to the problem or part of it ..

the central banking system worked because big government helped big business controll most of the products in the economies ..

there are really huge barter networks built up in the us and north america.. just not to many people know about them .

human being get lazy when they can.. having everything available fore dollars was easy .. going to a job and working for dollars .. was easier than trying to make stuff and sell it ..

today the tech we buy are as much tools od pruduction as there are consumption ..

today everyone can be part of their local economy .. part of there national/regional economy, and part of an economic network that stretches around the world .. with the same tools .. the pc or laptop in their home and some type of smartphone

the drawback for those in control of the money as they have pulled most of the money to the top ..and ended trickle down economics ..so not enough money is getting to the masses .. is the masses figure out some other type of currence to get their needs met ..there is a difference between lazy and stupid ..

so as i have stated in othe threads .. the future of currencies .. will be sort of a north american currency.. a south american currency..an african currency ..the euro will survive ..and the model that develops out of these problems will be used in the other regional currencies.. and there will be an asian currency ..

with this will come less restricted trade between the countries in these regions ..so people will have an easier time trading with each other ..

locally .. because we are leaving the age of mass production and cultural homogenation.. locals will express there culture.. and barter and trade their service that need to be performed locally.. sometime just helping out neighbor.. or trading excess food they grew in theirgardens.. for items others produced .. or using local trade networks to trade cloth that are still good ..but they don't wear with others .. for items they don't use but are still good ..

dozens of different currency system tailored to local needs ..

and then currencies for worldwide networks .. to protect against shift in the values of the regional currencies ..

the interesting part of this system that is just forming ..is that the big money is no longer to be made stealing wealth from people.. but in sort of a paradox..those who make the most money will be the ones who provide the tools for people to make things.. and then provide the channels for them to trade.. and the method for them to ship.. and be supplied ..

but we are just at the start of this and it is sprouting up as the old system comes apart ..and most people don't understand how important it is that it is happening ..

the great depression scarred the minds of the americans who went through it and ushered in the age of big business ever growing government..and central banking ..

and it is those three systems that are starting the fail and unravel ..and the people are left to figure out what to do ..

..but after the great depression and world war too .. we looked very much like we where on the path of biblical armegeddon.. with the us and russia eventually nuking eachother and wiping out most life on the planet ..so these systems set in around the world to just last untill the end ..



sorry for necroing this thread and rambling on ..

[Luke]

today the tech we buy are as much tools od pruduction as there are consumption ..

You nailed it here.

Producing only to consume is essentially burning resources that are already scarce. Pointless - or even suicidal behaviour.

The goal of economy is to coordinate scarce resources, in order to use them effectively. No such thing here. There are few places when creating things that save the only irreplaceable thing we have : time is still occurring.

On the other hand , consumption is actually wasting time.

Frankly, when I ponder that, this is about the best summary available:

I'm number one, why try harder.