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The Only Scarcity
Nimbin community's general social ethos, is a positive bias towards the achievement of prosperity through sustainability. Ever the innovative and alternative society, Nimbin has, especially since the visit of futurist, the late Robert Theobald, been pursuing the vision of and investigating ways of creating a self-supporting, self-reliant and cooperative group of producers, service providers and traders. In view of world wide social and environmental degradation, the accent is on the all important sustainability, both in the economic and the social dimensions. An open and democratic, 'Nimbin Community Forum,' that stemmed from the Robert Theobald visit, set up a working group to research and install a suitable alternative finance, that would be supportive of these aims. The conventional money system, frustrates and actually prevents sustainability in many ways, not the least of which is its forcing (because of its perpetually scarcity resulting inadequate purchasing power) local communities to import most of its requirements (because it is cheaper) and to export most of its products (because locals can't afford to buy them). The imposition of this import, export, most of which is unnecessary in real terms, costs the environment dearly in pollutant emissions not only because of wasteful transportation. The packaging of goods and the chemical additives necessary for long shelf life also impacts adversely on the ecosystem and human health. The working group that looked at an alternative finance for the Nimbin Community, introduced the interest free LET system. This LETS (Local Energy Trading System) gives a local community the monetary means, to consume whatever it is capable of producing in the form of goods and services. LETS or 'nimLETS' as our local Nimbin system is called, represents only the means of exchange of goods and services (it is not a product in itself, as is existing money) and is as plentiful as the productive capacity of any local society. LETS in the form of hard currency notes of (1, 2, 5,10 & $20s) can be earned by and is available to, any member in the community who has something to contribute. "nimLETS" provides Nimbin with the purchasing power that will enable the local market-place to consume and promote its own production and services without debt. In this way, realising Nimbin's vision of a prosperous and sustainable community. It will allow the consumption of fresh organic produce, locally made products and local skills, instead of things produced elsewhere at great cost to our health and to the environment. Success as a co-operative as opposed to a competitive social culture, which in turn produces a stable local economy depends on an alternative to the present debt and interest ridden currency. It is this system of finance that demands we become competitive with each other and with our environment. Competition can be shown to be the very cause of most of our social/economic/environmental problems. 'Most of us expend a great amount of our physical, emotional and mental time and energy in the getting, the keeping and the spending of money. But who really knows where it comes from? Most people would suspect that the answer to this question comes from the study of economics or of monetary theory - boring subjects, full of equations.' Neither sciences of economics or monetary theory bother to explain the mystery surrounding the creation of money. This aspect is deliberately suppressed. In fact, the actual creation of money is largely invisible - and seems almost miraculous: Most people, when they find out where money really comes from, are incredulous and rightly so. Society leads them to believe otherwise, either by omission or commission. Money begins its life when a specific banking institution with a legal charter to create money and lend it at interest, grants a loan to individuals, industries or governments. When the loan money has been repaid, that money is no longer in existence. It is not in a bank fund, it is not anywhere. Banks do not lend the money that people deposit with them. The act of the bank granting the loan, creates the money. It is money that was not in existence before that instant. No loan, no money. Money's very existence is entirely dependent its status as a loan. The money in your pocket, in your bank account or in any dividend or interest bearing investment has been borrowed at sometime somewhere and must be repaid with interest by the initial borrower at some stage. So a constant round of borrowing is essential to keep any economy afloat, even marginally. The present system of creating dollars as a debt, means that money must always, by its very nature as debt, be in short supply. All money used for production has initially been borrowed into existence and put through the workplace into circulation, mostly as wages/salaries. Interest and capital repayments must be subtracted from the money already in circulation leaving a constant shortfall of purchasing power in the local marketplace. This leaves a permanent gap between the cost of production and the prices that industry must recover from the already depleted amount of purchasing power available in the local market-place. Therefore it becomes essential to find a reliable export market to aid in the constant struggle to maintain a viable local economy. The problem is that all the other local markets in the world must do the same. In the beginning this may work for some 'lucky' nations but long term success even for them is problematic as the world market-place, suffers the same chronic economic strangulation and the "scarcity of money" that is caused by the present debt at interest system of creating all our money. The credit squeeze, the recession, the depression, the cost cutting, the microeconomics, the downsizing and economic rationalism are but some of the effects or symptoms of the present dysfunctional system that produces the financial debt and therefore general scarcity. Instead of requiring that we compete for the scarce finance, LETS (Local Energy Transfer System) promotes a spirit of cooperation and a fair and equitable exchange of values for communities like Nimbin. |