Ithaca tried this with their "Ithaca dollars" but I think it went nowhere.
Sounds stupid. Why use money that doesn’t work beyond your own borders and isn’t as solid as the US dollar? Stupid hippies.
And that would be BREAKING NO LAWS...
Ithaca hours are still in circulation and have been since 1991.
Read the rest of the article you posted and it will list multiple cities that are doing the same thing.
Don’t tell me, the town also boasts a wise-cracking mother and daughter and romantic entanglements with the owner of the local cafe...
I think it is more about supporting small local business over large chains.
Interesting to watch yes....I wonder what they will do when they decide not to use them anymore.
For any of you Nevadans out there, who was the third-party candidate for Governor in Nevada, I think in the 1970s, who ran on a platform of a silver-backed Nevada currency, citing casino gaming chips as proof that alternate currencies can work? He was like a meteorite. He flamed for a short period and then completely disappeared. I can’t seem to come up with a winning combo of google search terms to pull up his name. Anybody remember him?
(In his defense, whoever he was, I’m pretty sure he did specify that the new currency would be backed by silver, unlike the town script of this story.)
looks to me like it is the foolish businesses who accept this crap at par get screwed.....
“One day, you decide to go out for a nice dinner. You go to the bank to purchase BerkShares to spend at a local restaurant. You go in with 90 federal dollars and exchange them for 100 BerkShares. You go to dinner, and the total cost comes to $100. The restaurant accepts BerkShares in full, so you pay entirely in BerkShares. Therefore, you’ve spent 90 federal dollars and recieved a $100 meal - a ten percent discount for you. The owner of the restaurant now has 100 BerkShares. They decide that they need to deposit them for federal dollars and return them to the bank. When they bring them to the bank, the banker deposits the 100 BerkShares you spent on dinner and gives the restaurant $90 federal dollars, the same 90 dollars that you had originally exchanged for BerkShares. The end result? You recieve a ten percent discount because of the initial exchange, but the same $90 you originally traded for BerkShares all goes to the business where you spent those BerkShares.”
found at
http://www.berkshares.org/localcurrency.htm
Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution:
Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
It applies to states, and I’m sure their cities as well.
Several cities have done it. http://www.zpub.com/notes/LocalCurrency.html shows images of the bills for several.
Ithaca, NY - In Ithaca We Trust
Ukiah, CA - In Each Other We Trust
etc.
Can’t see how it does it’s intended purpose though if it is fully exchangable with US dollars. If my local store is supplied by a producer out of town/country, the supplier still gets payment in exchange for goods.
Isn’t this illegal? I thought only the Feds could print paper currency, and state and local governments were restricted to minting silver and gold coins by the constitution.
These throwbacks are still living in the ‘free silver’ days.
A local government printing and issueing their own currency is subject to very strict federal laws. It was taken to court in Inthaca NY a few years back and has been ruled legal provided is gets the sanction of the Treasury Dept. and ALL transactions are taxed.
I have been watching this item for awhile. It offers an interesting theory. Money printed that is actually backed by gold!!! What a concept!
Ahh, maybe you didn't read the whole article? per:
" The BerkShares program is one of about a dozen such efforts in the nation. Local groups in California, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin run similar ones. One of the oldest is Ithaca Hours, which went into circulation in 1991 in Ithaca, New York.
"Stephen Burkle, president of the Ithaca Hours program, said the notes are a badge of local pride. "At the beginning it was very hard to get small businesses to get on board with it," said Burkle, who also owns a music store in Ithaca. "When Ithaca Hours first started, there wasn't a Home Depot in town, there wasn't a Borders, there wasn't a Starbucks. Now that there are, it's a mechanism for small businesses to compete with national chains."
So 16 years and counting - not exactly "nowhere."
The only thing I disagree with is the headline: "New age Town ...
Gt. Barrington is more of a sleepy little "old" age town.
Can I use my Canadian loonies?