This is a rather old interview, however this concept is now being talked about on various websites. His newest website is http://www.accessfoundation.org/ still under construction, but has powerpoint presentations.
rumpelby Bernard Lietaer
Few people have worked in and on the money system in as many different capacities as Bernard Lietaer. He spent five years at the Central Bank in Belgium, where his first project was the design and implementation of the single European currency system. He was president of Belgium's Electronic Payment System, and has developed technologies for multinational corporations to use in managing multiple currency environments.
He has helped developing countries improve their hard currency earnings and taught international finance at the University of Louvain, in his native Belgium.
Bernard Lietaer was also the general manager and currency trader for one of the largest and most successful offshore currency funds.
He is currently a fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources at the University of California at Berkeley.
YES!editor Sarah van Gelder talked to Bernard about the possibilities for a new kind of currency better suited to building community and sustainability. He can be reached to discuss this topic via an Internet conference at:
http://www.transaction.net/money/SARAH : Why do you put so much hope into the development of alternative currencies?
BERNARD : Money is like an iron ring we've put through our noses. We've forgotten that we designed it, and it's now leading us around. I think it's time to figure out where we want to go - in my opinion toward sustainability and community - and then design a money system that gets us there.
SARAH : So you would say that the design of money is actually at the root of much else that happens, or doesn't happen, in society?
BERNARD : That's right. While economic textbooks claim that people and corporations are competing for markets and resources, I claim that in reality they are competing for money - using markets and resources to do so. So designing new money systems really amounts to redesigning the target that orients much human effort.
Furthermore, I believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using.
For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=886and an excerpt of an interview:
BL: Most people haven't looked at what's happening in monetary
innovations today. What do you think a frequent flyer mile is, but a
currency issued by an airline? In Britain, you can go to J.
Sainsbury, the largest supermarket chain, and use British Airway
miles to buy your goods. Initially, it was only designed as a loyalty
scheme for people taking planes. Today, you can earn this currency
without ever taking a plane. On Visa cards you get miles. And you can
use them to pay long-distance telephone calls, taxis, restaurants,
hotels.
snip
BL: I gave you that first example-a commercial loyalty currency-only
because it would be familiar to most of your readers. But in addition
to those commercial private currencies, there are now more than 4,000
communities around the world that have started their own currency for
social purposes as well.
For example, there are about 300 or 400 private currency systems in
Japan to pay for any care for the elderly that isn't covered by the
national health insurance. They are called "fureai kippu" (caring
relationship tickets). Here's how they work: let's say that on my
street lives an elderly gentleman who is handicapped and cannot go
shopping for himself. I do the shopping for him. I help him with food
preparation. I help him with the ritual bath, which is very important
in Japan. For this help, I get credits. I put those credits in a
savings account, and when I'm sick, I can have other people provide
such services for me. Or I can electronically send my credits to my
mother, who lives on the other side of the country, and somebody
takes care of her.
Here is an agreement within a community to use as medium of payment
something other than national currencies, to solve a social problem.
And it makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of people to stay
in their homes much longer than they otherwise could. Otherwise,
you'd have to put most of these people into a home for seniors, which
costs an arm and a leg to society, and they're unhappy there. So
nobody's winning. In contrast, Japan has created a currency for
elderly care.
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