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But take a closer look. Why do we have "local currencies" and what actually are they?
The local currency units we trade with in a LETSystem are not just created by book keeping they represent the real wealth of that closed loop trading community, the goods and services provided by the participants. They are real promises made by real people. Not creative accountants. If they are seen as merely numbers to be moved from one account to another they will very soon lose their value.
Eventually people will accumulate credits which are not backed by promises from within the system and therefore find difficulty spending them within the system. This will lead to using the intertrading account more often and loss of integrity in each local system as the closed loop is broken and the real wealth is dissipated over a wide area. We already have a currency that does this, its accepted everywhere, and its called sterling!
We use LETS to overcome the problems of conventional money and therefore break away from the cash mentality, not take it with us.
Local money is better by design so lets not miss the point of what a LETSystem does. The function of a LETSytem is to allow a community to issue and use its own currency, thereby taking control over its own economy.
There is obviously a demand for specialised services not presently found within a particular trading community as the growth of intertrading shows. The linking of smaller systems offers more choice, diversity in goods & services and will consequently mean more trading, this is a good thing. But not at the expense of losing sight of why we are using local money in the first place.
Lets keep it simple. The answer lies in using more then one currency, just like multiple credit cards, -"in which systems do you take local money". If one currency isn't accepted try offering another. Although clearly, people wont want to join several systems if that involves additional expense, more mailings, different account offices and procedures.
No need to be clever just be practical. One solution is a multiLETS registry. Room for everyone to use whatever trading rules they choose without compromising anyone else. Its cheap, efficient and the service can't be monopolised.
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