[ox-en] Germany local money
- From: "magius" <magius inventati.org>
- Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 15:15:47 +0100
Nestled away in Germany's high-tech and entrepreneurial region of Bavaria,
in the bustling and prosperous area of Chiemgau, an experiment is underway
that encourages patronage of local business. Six young women, all in their
late teens, have started an enterprise using a new kind of money.
This budding experiment is already catching the attention of dozens of other
communities around Europe and beyond.
Chiemgau's local retailers, as is typical in cities and towns around the
globe, are feeling the pressure of the current economic downturn. There is
also the classic competition scenario between the older traditional shops
offering local regional products or higher quality goods and the fare being
offered by the large retail chains. Local retailers are naturally finding it
difficult to vie with the big, national and international merchants on
price, and are loosing critical market share, with some being forced out of
business altogether.
So, inspired by their economics teacher, 30-year-old Christian Gelleri,
these six young women created a money system that encourages the users to
shop locally and has a built-in mechanism that makes possible to financially
support community based projects or charities.
Bernard Lietaer said in his book [1]: "Money is not a thing, although it
appears as an object (paper, gold, silver, coins). Money is rather an
agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange.
Therefore, money resides in the same space as all social contracts, such as
marriage, rental agreements, and political parties.." Chiemgauer is a
practical application of these words.
How the Chiemgauer Works
Those wishing to participate in the Chiemgauer purchase 100 Chiemgauer for
100 Euros. This local currency is used to pay goods and services in
participating stores. The tally at the end of the day's business is that 95
percent remains with the business, three percent goes to the non-profit (e.
g. for the new building of a community school in Chiemgau) and two percent
remaining goes to the Chiemgauer currency administration to cover overhead.
There is an additional feature to the Chiemgaurer currency that
differentiates it from conventional currency. The Chiemgauer is time-stamped
and a "parking charge" for not circulating the money is applied. This gives
an incentive to the user to spend the local currency, rather than hoard or
save it. This feature ensures that the currency is kept in circulation,
which in turn is good for business in particular and for the region in
general.
Rudolf Steiner talked about the concept of "aging money" in Basic Issues of
the Social Question, (p. 119 writes): "In order to prevent money that money
remains idle, a new issue could take place from time to time. One result of
such measures is that the interest derived from capital would diminish in
the course of time."
The idea of "aging money" or time- stamped money is in fact thousands of
years old. There were several periods throughout history - including
Dynastic Egypt and the Central Middle Ages in Northern Europe - were
demurrage (negative interest money) or aging money was used.. Contrary to
popular misconception these societies enjoyed great economic vitality as is
evidenced by the building of the great pyramids and the major cathedrals. In
particular, it was the common folk, and not the Church, during the 10th-12th
centuries who had extra discretionary funds as a result of the their money
system and were able to finance these great public works.
Many centuries later, Steiner didn't only want efficiency in the exchange of
goods and services, he also pointed out that we needed a more holistic view
of money. Consequently, giving would be the key for spiritual and social
innovation, especially for educational institutions, and others that do good
work in society that need support. The Chiemauer fits Steiner's aspiration.
The idea of a complementary currency system has been germinating for many
years, motivated by the examples of the WIR, in Switzerland, and the
Bethel -Euro system in Germany currently in operation, and the famous and
successful Worgl experiment in Austria during the 1930's that was forbidden
by Austrian authorities 1933 (district administration of Kufstein and
reconfirmed of the surpreme administration court).
But the six students were the ones who said: Why do adults talk and think
for so long? The idea sounds good. Let's do it!
Girl Power
Each of the young women has different talents and it's very interesting that
after a year I would say: the function they chose fit perfectly to their
background, skill sets and interests ".
Mirjam, 17-years-old is the chief and coordinates the other workers in the
association. Her parents are just as interested in social issues as she is.
Although introverted, she is the one who first really grasped the idea of
the local currency. Anna, another 16-year-old, is the designer of the
vouchers. Her father is an artist, and her mother is teacher. She really
enjoys art and has a very refined sense for graphics. She designed the logo
and often paints a big logos and signage for the system and its merchants
with great artistic flair. Cathrin (16) writes all the marketing materials.
Her mother is an artist and her father is professor of Engineering. The PR
is done by Charlotte (16) and Christian. Charlotte is very self-confident
and moderation for our first regional money conference to launch the system.
She is the youngest in the team and the most extroverted. Her father is a
doctor; her mother is active in the local PTA's. Theresa (17) is responsible
for the production of vouchers and collateral materials for the
organization. She works very hard and puts in extra hours if necessary. She
contributed two drawings for the backside of Chiemgaur vouchers. She also
works in a solar energy power project at school. With her teacher Herbert
Langmann they succeeded in building a solar facility on the roof of the
school building and in the next phase with the Mayor's support, they plan to
expand this to become the biggest solar roof in town. Her parents are
farmers. And finally, Franziska (17) takes care of the books. She's very
accurate and is very thrifty with the association's recourses. Her father
works for a big telecommunication company and is also engaged in the
development stage of the project.
So, it was the girls' job, for the most part, to sell the project to the
local merchants. And, who better than the pupils at the local schoolwho
would be beneficiaries of the social venture funding segment of the scheme?
Launching the Chiemgauer
The biggest start-up effort was to convince the businesses to participate.
We would hear questions like: Why should we give five per cent of our
turnover? Why should we accept money that is "only" valid in the region and
has a demurrage fee? In the early days some speculated that no one would
participate.
It took also a long time to think about the security features of the
coupons, which is an important factor in getting the confidence of both the
merchants and participants to use the system. That is why the printing
standards for the coupons are very high so forgery is difficult, if not,
possible. Also, in light of this and coupled with the fact that most people
know one another, counterfeiting is unthinkable. There is also a club card,
which identifies the members of the association. Everybody who wants to take
part must sign the rules of the new money. There is no membership fee.
Additionally, there is no 'Big Brother' tracking mechanism, so nobody knows
when, what or how much the participants buy with their Chiemgauers.
After two months of conversations and follow-up phone calls about 35
companies were willing to take part. The system was officially launched in
January 2003.
The customers can buy nearly everything with their complementary currency.
Food, clothes, medicine, furniture, services. A customer reports about his
experiences with the Chiemgauer: "In the beginning I was skeptical if it
would function. Will my Chiemgauers be accepted? The second time it was
still a bit embarrassing but the third time I was sure and it makes a lot of
fun to spend the Chiemgauers. When I took them out of my pocket other
customers often look surprised and ask. I always said that it's function
would be to support our school. Recently a tourist from Berlin explained me
that the Chiemgauer would further regional circles. Very foxy!"
The model is very successful:
- After 100 days the "Chiemgauer club" has 100 members.
- 10.000 Chiemgauers were issued.
- 70 businesses now accept Chiemgauer.
- There are at least one new business and two new customers every week.
There are also limits. Wholesalers only accept Chiemgauer in small amounts
at this point because the system is not fully computerized and the
electronic transfer of Chiemgauer is not yet an option. Unfortunately, at
this time, the students are not able to program new software. However, there
is much support for the project and it is hoped that transaction software
will be available by the end of the year. It is also hoped that they can
partner will a community-friendly bank in the region so this system can be
equipped with dual currency readers for participating merchants and vendors.
The organization plans to hire three more students to cope the workload. Of
course the 1,000 Euros (US$1100) made in the first couple of months of
operation isn't enough to pay for more teachers or build a new school yet.
But these are still very early days, and it is clearly a good start.
Furthermore, the money is only one of the relevant dimensions. All the
members report that by using their Chiemgauers they have a stronger feeling
of belonging to the local community, and of contributing to its
socio-economic well-being.
Because of the success of the Chiemgauer and the solar project this new form
of teaching is taken more seriously in the school - learning by doing.
Everybody knows about the projects and the people who are involved have
gained valuable life lessons. The students and teachers have learned to
create a vision and take action, step-by-step in making it a reality.
The Bigger Picture
The Chiemgauer is in fact only one example of a whole worldwide movement
towards complementary currencies with socially motivations.
There is a wide variety of social purposes pursued with such systems: from
resolving local unemployment to elderly care, from mentoring kids to
resolving environmental problems. What they all have in common is to be able
to operate in parallel with the conventional money system, and in being able
to match otherwise unmet needs with unused resources.
What is different about the Chiemgauer is that it also generates a cash flow
in conventional money that can be used for specific targeted purposes. It is
also one of the few systems that has formally the "parking fee" for money
incorporated. Finally, this is a currency that has incorporated at its core
a gift dimension, exactly as Rudolf Steiner and the anthroposophical
movement has always claimed.
It would even be possible for the different local systems to interconnect on
a broader level, nationally or even internationally, and special clearing
house software is currently in beta test to become available in open source
freeware to any group interested in using it.
[1] B. Lietaer Access to Money beyond Greed and Scarcity (Access Foundation,
October 2003).
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: projekt oekonux.de