Strange Currency

[Porty]

From today's EN:



Been tried elsewhere- what do you think?

[seanie]

There are some well established local currencies in existence, but they tend to work best at a fairly large scale; at a regional level, or possibly city wide. You also need a fairly wide buy in to the scheme, otherwise it's a bit of a gimmick.

[seanie]

One problem, at the smaller scale, is that apart from the initial novelty value the people likely to be enthused by and actually use a local currency, are the people who actually shop locally anyway. So it doesn't necessarily affect spending patterns.

Secondly, the idea of an in-built discount will have some appeal (21 Porty Pounds for £20) but who subsidises that? Businesses might not be keen on the hassle of a separate currency anyway, but I can't imagine many wanting less than a 1:1 exchange rate. Especially if they don't perceive much increase in spending for the reason above. You'll have some savings through notes not being redeemed (again partly down to novelty value) but how do you sustain a 20:21 differential?

At a local level I think something like a Timebank would be more useful than a currency.

[Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]

Who would you have on your Porty fivers and tenners then?

[Porty]

Hmmm...good question..does it have to be a person/s?

[seanie]

[Bob Jefferson]

Generally speaking.

[rmolehusband]

I like the principle, but don't see the point of just being able to buy them - that makes it little more than a discount voucher scheme. Even at that, I don't think I would go to the bother of exchanging my sterling into porty pounds just for a 5% discount. I'd suggest you need to 'earn' them, which maybe ties up a bit with Seannie's time bank idea.

However, to me, the best way to earn them would be as a reward for shopping local - each participating retailer would give you some porty pounds when you shop with them. These same retailers would accept the porty pounds as payment. It could be tuned work out at the same 5% discount, though the denomination or exchange rate would need to be tweaked so that you could collect something on small value purchases.

Retailers would be more inclined to get involved as it would promote repeat local shopping. Since they will both give out and receive, those who receive a surplus would sell to those with a deficit, thus ensuring that the cost to a retailer is always in proportion to the amount of real money spent in their shop.

[rmolehusband]

[seanie]

You can have a 5% discount to incentivise the introduction of a local currency, but that's not the point of the exercise and it would be a mistake to promote it on that basis. The main advantages are that it keeps liquidity in the system and reduces the leakage of money from the local economy. There's also nothing difficult in principle about operating them. The difficulty is a practical one of having enough people participating, over a wide enough area, for the currency to be genuinely useful.

[Bob Jefferson]

[seanie]

To raise the profile of the PCC we could introduce a new award?

PCC Cllr of the Year?

Celebrated by a tasteful nude shot projected onto the Police Station?

I'll throw my hat into the ring.

[Bob Jefferson]

PCC Rear of the Year. That's an idea we could all get behind.

[Porty]

Not a new idea, we used to have "rear of the year" back in the 70's. There was a parade every year outside the baths. Eventually it died out due to disillusionment amongst potential contestants. Four or five years of the beach donkeys dominating the final proved fatal.

[rmolehusband]

[Mark Cameron]

[seanie]

The benefits of a local currency tend to be felt at more general level rather that that of an individual. For an individual it shouldn't really be much different from using normal currency. The advantages are mainly that (because you can't put it in the bank) it tends to keep circulating, and because it's tied to a geographical area it's less likely to leak from the local economy. It's not really an injection of funds into the economy, and it might not alter spending patterns dramatically, but the idea is that over the longer term, if it achieves a critical mass of acceptance and exchange, it makes the local economy a wee bit more resilient and a wee bit stronger. It's not something likely to work at a Portobello level, but if you had an Edinburgh Pound or a Lothian Pound that people really used it could be beneficial.

[rathbone]

[rmolehusband]

of a local currency scheme in Brizzle.