
Why a small town in Washington is printing its own currency during the pandemic - zenit-mf-1
https://thehustle.co/covid19-local-currency-tenino-washington/
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supernova87a
It's an interesting economic phenomenon, trying to keep your generated
economic output of labor local. Always seems to be done by relatively isolated
sub-communities (socially or geographically), where, let's call it, artisan
shopowners seem to be the beneficiaries. Usually not where there's a whole lot
of meaningful industrial activity to begin with...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_i...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States)

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zenit-mf-1
Extract from the article "But why print the money on wood? Why not just give
residents $300 worth of federal dollars?

The answer is simple: By creating its own local currency, Tenino keeps the
money in the community. As Fournier puts it, “Amazon will not be accepting
wooden dollars.”

“The money stays in the city. It doesn’t go out to Walmart and Costco and all
those places,” says Joyce Worrell, who has run the antique shop Iron Works
Boutiques for the past decade.

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marcusverus
[deleted in shame]

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matthewowen
The article is very clear about this. The store can take the currency to the
town government and redeem it for USD. They can then use that USD for
restocking.

The goal isn't some circulating currency: it's just a stimulus that has to be
spent locally.

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wayneftw
I wonder how well something like this will do compared to Ithaca hours [0]
where one unit of currency is equal to an hour’s worth of work. It’s been
around for a long time, but they don’t give free money to people like they do
with this local currency in WA…

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours)

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xrd
I'm curious if anyone has opinions about the legality of this? Why can a town
do this but cryptocurrencies have to be so cautious about the way they present
themselves to the market?

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danielschonfeld
I think the reason is that there is no interfacing between federal money and
their currency, it's the equivalent of bartering only with the agileness of
currency notes instead of cows, lamb and sheep. To your question, if
cryptocurrencies stayed in cryptocurrencies with no interfacing to fiat, it
would be the same with no government having any ability to govern it aside
form outright banning by force.

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delfinom
There is interfacing, the town government directly exchanges the wood money
for US money twice a month.... The real argument would be these are
essentially redemption tokens with equal value to US money, you can't
speculate or invest in them because they will only ever be worth the same
amount in US money.

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toomuchtodo
You _could_ speculate on them based on the value of what you can buy in town.
Maybe they’re worth more if a business would only accept fake fiat over
dollars, or worth less because you can only spend this currency in this one
geographic location.

Like osmosis, if there is a value gradient, you can arbitrage it given a means
to exchange that value.

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NotSammyHagar
This isn't too far from Olympia. I wonder if there are some opportunities to
buy things cheaper for cash than with the script dollars. I guess they address
that by letting businesses exchange them back for the same. Still that's a
tiny bit of overhead and there's a tiny chance making them less than equal to
dollars because of the exchange. It's really a great idea for a small town.

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lasagnaphil
Similar to what some are doing in Korea: issue gift cards that can only be
used in local markets to local people: in that way one can ensure the money
goes to local business rather than imported goods/internet shopping/whatever.

Another policy in Korea (which is more direct and bigger in scale) is: issuing
people money directly via online banking (about a few hundred dollars per
person, maybe more depending on your wage status), but put constraints on
credit/check card usage such that the money can only be used in certain
businesses (mostly shops and local restaurants).

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wtmt
Slightly related. Auroville [1] in South India has tried its own monetary
system (Aurocard). But over time that didn’t catch up much. There are some
businesses that will accept only the Aurocard and not any other form of
payment (like government issued currency notes or bank issued cards).

[1]: [https://www.auroville.org](https://www.auroville.org)

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MaxLeiter
Semi related, in Pismo Beach (California), shop owners used clamshells as
proof-of-purchase / an alternative currency during the Great Depression

[https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1066284](https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1066284)

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exclipy
Very sparse on details.

What gives these wooden dollars any value? Why would I, as a local business
owner, accept them?

How do I pay for supplies and stock I get from outside the community, if all I
have are these wooden dollars and no federal dollars?

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amscanne
The article has this information.

> The spending comes with a few restrictions: Residents can’t use the money to
> buy cigarettes, lottery tickets, or alcohol. The currency is designed for
> the essentials, including food, gas, and daycare. Almost every business in
> town accepts the wooden notes, and twice a month, they can submit redemption
> requests to the city to turn the notes into cash.

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exclipy
Thanks, I missed that.

It was at the end of a section that started with "Fournier isn’t your cookie-
cutter politician. A firefighter since the age of 18, ..." so I assumed the
whole section was going to be a backstory on the person and skipped it.

