Bernard Lietaer
Vabast entsüklopeediast Vikipeedia.
- For multinational corporations, he developed the first models of global currency management;
- He has consulted with developing countries on four different continents about improving hard currency earnings;
- His academic history includes a Professorship of International Finance at the University of Louvain in Belgium;
- For five years he was head of the Organization and Planning Department at the Central Bank of Belgium, where he was President of the Electronic Payment System; and
- Finally, in the speculative domain, he served as general manager and currency trader of the most successful offshore currency fund.
| Table of contents |
Raamatud ja uurimused
- The Future of Money
- Saksa versioon Future of Money (http://www.futuremoney.de/)
- The Future of Payment Systems (http://www.unisys.com/financial/insights/insights__compendium/WPaper_BLietaerbergdahl.pdf)
- Community Currencies: A New Tool for the 21st Century (http://www.transaction.net/money/cc/cc01.html)
Intervjuud
- complementary currencies for social change (http://uazu.net/money/lietaer.html) By Ravi Dykema 08.2003
Bali näide
I spent last summer in Bali. People are remarkably artistic in that island. Their communities are unusually strong. They have festivals that are totally mind-blowing, and can last a month. They’re having a good time. It’s a comparatively non-violent society. And what I found is that it isn’t a simple coincidence that they have been using a dual currency system for many centuries. All these unusual characteristics of Bali turn out directly to be nurtured by their dual money system. I am publishing a detailed paper on how this mechanism works in the forthcoming issue of Reflections, the journal of the Society of Organizational Learning at MIT.
Practically all Balinese participate in a dual currency system. The first is the conventional national currency (the Indonesian Rupiah); the second is a time currency where the unit of account is a block of time of approximately three hours. This second currency is created and used within the “banjar”—this is a community entity consisting of between 50 and 500 families. It is in each banjar that the decisions are made democratically to launch any big community project. It could be to put on a festival or build a school. For each project, they always make two complementary budgets: one in the national currency, and one in time. That second currency—called “narayan banjar” (meaning work for the common good of the community)—is created by the people themselves. They don’t have to compete in the outside world to obtain that second currency, and it fosters cooperation between the members of the community. I call it a yin currency—it’s more feminine in nature. And it complements the national currency, which is a competitive currency and therefore of a yang, or masculine, nature.
Here’s why it works: poor communities don’t have a lot of national currency, but they tend to have a lot of time. In rich communities, the opposite tends to be the case—people have more national currency, but less time. In either case, each banjar is capable of creating extraordinary events just by budgeting and using more of the kind of currency—national or time—in which they are rich. This balance is a key contribution to the unusually strong community spirit that prevails in Bali. And it’s not just because they’re Hindus. There are almost a billion Hindus in India, and they don’t behave that way. Here is an example of how a currency can make a difference.'
Miks raha ei ole neutraalse mõõduvahend oma olemuselt
RD: We have a strong emotional attachment to money, and we worry about it. So how we relate to money influences who we are and how we think of ourselves.
BL: Yes, you’re right. But it is interesting that societies that are using different kinds of currency have also very different collective emotions concerning money. The generally accepted theory—dating back to Adam Smith—is that money is value neutral. Money is supposed to be just a passive medium of exchange. It supposedly doesn’t affect the kind of transactions we make, or the kind of relations we establish while making those exchanges. But the evidence is now in: this hypothesis turns out to be incorrect. Money is not value neutral.
Let’s return to the example of the fureai kippu that I was mentioning earlier, the elderly care currency in Japan. A survey among the elderly asked them what they prefer: the services provided by people who are paid in yen, the national currency; or the services provided by the people paid in fureai kippu. The universal answer: those paid in fureai kippu, “because the relationships are different.” This is one example of evidence that currency is not neutral.
Another example: there is typically a reluctance among friends to pay for help provided by using national currency. If a friend is helping you move or paint and you pay him with national currency, it just doesn’t feel right. Interesting isn’t it?
Kogukond ja raha
BL: Yes, there have been surveys in several countries that prove this to be the case. Conventional currencies are built to create competition, and complementary currencies are built to create cooperation and community, and it’s important to be aware that both can be available to make our exchanges.
According to Paul Ray’s (author of The Cultural Creatives, Harmony Books, 2000) study, 83 percent of Americans believe that the top priority should be to re-build community, and yet the kind of currency we use in our transactions is precisely one that eliminates community. The word “community” comes from Latin, “cum munere.” “Munere” is “to give,” and “cum” is “among each other”—so, community means “to give among each other.” In short, it turns out that dollar exchanges tend to be incompatible with a gift economy. Complementary currencies are.
RD: Are you saying that you can’t have community if you’re using dollar exchanges?
BL: I’m saying that exclusive use of a competitive programmed currency in a community tends to be destructive for the community fabric. This isn’t theory. We’ve seen this happen at the tribe level, with the collapses of traditional societies. I’ve seen one happen myself in Peru among the Chipibo in the Amazon. That tribe had been in existence for thousands of years. When they started using the national currency among themselves, the whole community fabric collapsed in five years’ time.
The same thing happened here during the 19th century in the Northwestern United States and Canada, in the traditional indigenous societies. The moment they started using white man’s currency among themselves, the community collapsed, the traditional fabric broke down.
Viited
- Rahandus
- Interra Project (http://www.interraproject.org)
- Feasta: Money Systems (http://www.feasta.org/money.htm)
- Energy Bulletin: The Future of Money (http://www.energybulletin.net/4207.html) Paul Hartzog
- Access foundation (http://www.accessfoundation.org/)
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