“The use of berkshares is educaTing people on The impor Tance
of suppor Ting local businesses. with that comes a sense
oF emPowerment.” –susan wiTT
can make positive changes in the local economy. The
fact of BerkShares raises questions like: Can we issue
currency that is not backed by the U.S. dollar? It’s
prompting people to think about other ways of thinking
about money.”
On a recent visit to Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
I purchased BerkShares at Lee Bank and spoke to branch
manager Paula Miller, who expressed enthusiasm about
the currency. “Customers love it. We’ve gotten to know
other businesses better,” she said, adding that it’s always
fun when clients recognize the work of local artists who
designed the bills. “It makes it a little more real.”
Time Banking
Time Dollars, now used in settings as varied as small
towns, retirement homes, schools and prisons, respond
to conventional currency’s limited capacity to measure
worth. “Dollars don’t measure value very well,” says
David Boyle, a fellow at the New Economics Foundation
in the United Kingdom. They are good, he says,
at measuring “the instantaneous value of Microsoft
or currencies on the international exchange. But not
the value of, say, a local shop, or of me if I’m very old
or young. I might have skills, but not those that are
conventionally marketable.”
Time Dollars were developed in 1980 by law professor
Edgar Cahn, who lamented that crucial work to improve
people’s lives—such as child and elder care—is much
needed but little valued. He saw that many who could
do these tasks were idle and felt useless. To get people
economically engaged, Cahn proposed a system where
people earn credit according to the number of hours
they work. These Time Dollars can then be “cashed in”
for services, like yard work, tutoring, etc.
Chiemgauer Regional Currency
Conventional currency excels at serving as a store of
value—so much so that use of money for actual trade
slows down, leaving some local economies stuck. Coin
and paper currencies do not lose value like the products
one buys with them can, which makes hoarding and
speculation attractive, particularly with the enticement
of interest. Argentine economist Silvio Gesell described
this phenomenon in 1913 and said
that money also should lose value:
that it should “rust” or go moldy like
other commodities, and suggested a
penalty, or demurrage fee, for hold-
ing onto it. Nearly 75 years later,
then-teenager Christian Gelleri read
Gesell’s work and was fascinated.
As a high school teacher, he saw the
chance to test the model with a local
currency. This is how it works: Each
quarter, every Chiemgauer bill loses
2 percent of its value. In order to
spend the money later, the consum-
er needs to put a special sticker on
the paper currency.
