Imagine a world where money is obsolete. It’s a hard thing to do.
 
How would we buy food and groceries and cars and Bebe shirts and Nike shoes? Most likely such a world would not offer luxuries such as Bebe and Nike, but it would also eradicate global corporations that are not accountable to people or our environment.
 
A growing web of Local Economic Trading Systems has emerged throughout the world offering an alternative to the current monetary system.
 
A group of more than 300 residents and merchants in the San Francisco Bay Area has successfully established a local currency called BREAD, which is a rough acronym for Bay Area Regional Exchange and Development. This system is based on hours of work valued at $12 an hour.
 
“Through the BREAD network, which now has over $20,000 worth of currency in circulation, members can pay for dinner, carpentry, childcare, tutoring, clerical assistance or organic produce,” Adbusters Magazine reported.
 
The benefits of such a system on the local community are tremendous. BREAD keeps the profits of the members within the community and guarantees that profits will not be swallowed into the assets of a large corporation. “BREAD shortens links between producers and consumers. When people trade locally, it reduces the massive amount of pollution created by transporting goods across the land and ocean,” the BREAD Web site, breadhours.org, explained.
 
In Japan, environmental activists have printed a new currency they call Earthday Money. People must do something good for the environment like picking up trash in order to earn Earthday cash. The bills can be redeemed at participating local cafes and grocery stores.
 
These schemes to weaken local dependence on multi-national corporations and a Russian roulette style world economy seem almost quaint. We tend to approach them with a good-for-them and we-wish-them-luck attitude. Mainly this is because we have been programmed from day one to believe that our current system is an affirmation of the accomplishments of mankind.
 
We cannot picture a world without money. Doesn’t that scare anyone? It is not something that is natural to our species. It is not essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word. So how have we let it consume almost every bit of the energy we put out in our lives? We go to school to learn so we can work at a job so that we can earn money to buy the things we are told to want so we can finally enjoy life with our things that we spend most of our lives working to get.
 
After Sept.11, amid the tragedy of all of the lives lost, President Bush stood before our nation appealing to our patriotism. We were instructed to show our patriotism with flags and donations and vigils, but, most importantly, we were told to keep buying. It is our patriotic duty to uphold the world order. Our economy, which is based on a mindless, emotionless, hollow cycle of keeping the masses busy working in order to consume more waste is part of our patriotic duty to uphold. Growing up immersed in this type of inherent belief system, it is no wonder that we look upon alternatives as naïve and useless.
 
Changes are vital if the world is to remain a viable, livable resource. The first place these changes can start taking hold is at the local, grassroots level. Do not scorn these first attempts. If we all took some time away from feeding the machine, we could contribute to these efforts and really start to make a difference. There are alternatives to supporting corporations that exploit our world’s resources and its people. Changes are possible, we just need to have a little faith and put forth a little effort.

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