VAGUIANS, There is an idea of a 'local' currency. Burlington has tried it. Montpelier has tried it.
I am sure its been done many times -- and it seems to fail (as far as I have causally noticed). Has anyone developed; or has any area implemented; a local "debit card" system for a town/geographical area? Something simple where individuals could put cash onto cards (online, or even at a local business) and spend locally with little to no processing fees? Right now a local vendor subsodizes the creditcard at 1-5% -- such a system could charge an equal overhead while guaranteeing local businesses they are "paying" for local business, rather than sending 1-5% to a creditcard processor. Such a system could even be piggybacked to process a vendors normal creditcard transactions such that they could process local cards, and as a failback, it would push the transaction out to their merchant. Enlighten me to where this has happened -- or why it wouldn't work. Stan
