Two neighborhoods in Milwaukee are considering printing their own currency, which could be bought with U.S. dollars, but would be only accepted at local businesses, in order to encourage people to shop at home instead of Walmart.
It’s not a new concept — the Chicago Tribune says that lots of towns and neighborhoods relied on their own local currency during the Great Depression. It’s also perfectly legal.
So what’s the advantage for shoppers? Well, the currency could offer incentives — trading $100 US for $110 in the local currency would give shoppers a 10% bonus, for example.
What do you think? Would you use a local currency in order to support your community? Or are you going to shop at Walmart until they pry the cart from your cold dead hands?
Milwaukee Neighborhoods Could Print Own Money [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: sfxeric )
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Sounds like a pain in the ass. The US spends billions on trying to prevent counterfeiting. I can’t imagine a local economy being able to adequately do this.
Who is securing the money? At some point, people will need to use the money outside of their area, and no one will want this insecure money.
i’m no economist, but this sounds retarded.
I would think that counterfeiting would be a huge problem with these “hyperlocal” currencies. These neighbourhoods don’t have the resources of the large central banks to make hard-to-counterfeit money. Wouldn’t any organization with comparable access to printing presses (e.g., any reasonably-organized gang) be able to make their own Milwaukee Money?
they have that here in North Carolina. Carrboro has “Plenty” But it’s hard to use, the guy who exchanged it for me at Cat’s Cradle couldn’t even remember the exchange rate. Although on the good side, the exchange rate doesn’t fluctuate nearly as much as with other currencies.
It’s very pretty too:
[www.ncplenty.org]
What if I wanted to say “Yes” and “This is for Hippies” as well. Sucks to have to choose one or the other.
Canadian Tire money.