It seems that there are a number of schemes to create currencies, on top of extant national currencies, that will be accepted only locally. Under such a program, a unit of currency, let's call it a "Local", will be created by a group in the community. The currency may have a more-or-less arbitrary value associated to it--one group I've read about sets their equal in value to ten dollars as well as one hour worth of effort. Presumably, then, if someone rakes your lawn for one hour, you pay that person one Local, and that person can exchange the Local for $10 worth of goods or services from participating merchants or individuals.
I am not sure how universal the dollar-pegging aspect is. For all I know, some schemes may the dollar-Local exchange rate may be free to fluctuate. I am very uncomfortable with such programs, although I haven't been able to find any scholarly research on them. Apart from obvious complaints, such as arbitrarily setting the wage rate too high causes unemployment, or those who wish to keep their transactions "local" could just do so anyway without this extra layer of complication, why are such schemes a bad thing? Alternatively, why are they good? Or, why are they neither? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/
