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[ox-en] Fundamental critique of markets (was Re: Alternative exchange systems furthering GPL society?)



While the LETS system are a good example for self-management and mutual
help during economic crisis (such as in Argentinia), I think
their main limitation is that they are still economic systems based
on markets. This is a big difference to the econonmy of (really)
free software, which is distributed freely, without markets.

Claim: in an economy which is equitable and just, which is based on
self-management and democratic decisions,  keeping markets subverts all
these principles.

This claim is substantiated by Michael Albert from ZMag. See
his book "Parecon - life after capitalism"
http://www.zmag.org/books/pareconv/parefinal.htm
especially the chapter "Judging economies", section "Markets"

See also my interview with him, where I also mention Oekonux:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=26&ItemID=8902

Greetings,
Till

ernie yacub wrote:
Michel and others who think LETS and other such mutual credit systems are merely useful in person-to-person trade and are therefore limited...

There is no reason that community currencies (cc) can't be used to buy food from the grocer, gas from the station, hardware from the store and software from developers. That's just a matter of those businesses accepting cc in part payment of a sale - the value added part.

And why wouldn't they if their normal money costs are covered (80-90% for a grocer; 90-95% for gas station; 60-70% for a hardware merchant; 0-50% for a software developer, etc). Especially if it meant that they could spend the cc with other businesses, pay staff bonuses, hire contractors, buy food for the family. The upshot is that cc favours local businesses tilting the economic playing field and generating more local production.

More money circulating in the community means more business for everybody. Every cc spent is a normal dollar saved for those things that cc can't buy or payment of taxes, although in due course local fees and taxes will also be paid in cc. Consider the possibility that a local government decides to accept cc in payment of business fees and taxes. That would mean that businesses could accept an even higher cc percentage of a sale.

There is no reason whatsoever that cc can't become a significant factor in any economy. Once they're circulating and creating more business and trade, common wealth is created rather than exploited.

Just because cc are in their infancy and haven't yet been proven to persist at the community level doesn't mean they can't or they won't. "Commercial Barter" systems use internal currencies to trade billions every year. Argentinians used creditos to weather their economic meltdown and some credito systems persist even though normal money has returned. Many communities survived the great depression using their own currencies. The potential is certainly there - all that's needed is liftoff. In the early days of flight, most people couldn't envision flying in a metal tube thousands of feet in the air, much less rockets to the moon (and back).

In one of your earlier posts you asked for some reading material so here are some websites to explore...

argentina...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4243942,00.html

...current system design http://dev.openmoney.org/tiki-index.php

....money and community
http://www.openmoney.org/play/m&c-notes.html

....the money problem
http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/explore/problems.html

...Tom Greco's books and materials
www.reinventingmoney.com

...Strohalm foundation
http://www.appropriate-economics.org/

ernie
http://lets.net
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de


--
Till Mossakowski               Phone +49-421-218-4683
Dept. of Computer Science      Fax +49-421-218-3054
University of Bremen           till tzi.de
P.O.Box 330440, D-28334 Bremen http://www.tzi.de/~till
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de



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