A** local exchange trading system**, or LETS, is a locally initiated, democratically organized, community enterprise that provides a community information service and records transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using locally created currency. LETS' allow people to negotiate the value of their hours or services, and to keep wealth in the locality where it is created. In this mutual credit system, @money is not created by banks or a central issuer, but is generated by the transaction itself (example below). In addition to quantifying individuals’ contributions to the community, LETS draws communities closer by keeping the economy local. Similar trading systems use 'metric currencies' or currencies that measure; as opposed to the @Fiat Money that's used in conventional value exchange which is a currency without @intrinsic value. Local currencies @ameliorate and can reverse the pressures of the global economy.
Example
Suppose that Jane needs someone to mow her lawn. Joe agrees to do it for ten LETS-dollars, and the transaction is recorded in a ledger: Jane’s account is debited by ten dollars, and Joe’s credited by ten dollars. If both started with a balance of zero, now Jane has minus-ten and Joe has ten dollars. Now Joe can use these ten LETS-dollars to buy some other good or service from Fred; Jane, meanwhile, owes the community ten dollars worth of some other service.
News
Contexts
- [1] Local Exchange Trading System, @Wikipedia
- [2] @Currency of Cooperation,@The Ascent of Humanity by @Charles Eisenstein
Tags
- #ascent-of-humanity (See: @The Ascent of Humanity)
- #cooperative_currency