(Really) Alternative Banking Systems

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Dorothea Lange Home of rural rehabilitation client, Tulare County, CA 1938   Our by now regular contributor Dr. Nelson Lebo III, the New Englande
[See the full post at: (Really) Alternative Banking Systems]

[rlmrdl]

As a budding permie, I have to disagree with the prescription. Money works best when it is passing through the most hands; vital economies have high velocity.

What matters more is that the money remains within a smaller geographical area, having it drain too soon from the landscape is the problem, but unless it is acting as a facilitator of exchanges, it is not doing what it is needed for. We also think of water moving slowly through the landscape but in fact, the slower it moves, the more valuable transactions it can take part in on a micro scale.

I read some research about 15 years ago that suggested that dollars exchanged locally (for any arbitrary definition of local) were worth $5 against those that were exchanged externally. Even when the trade was net profitable for the trader, the community value of an external trade was 20% of a local trade.

One way would be local currencies, and adding a defined rate of devaluation to encourage recipients to pass it along as quickly as possible would both probably work, but any hint that it was invigorating a community from which corporate interests and bigger government were potentially excluded will always bring down the forces of reaction on local heads.

[regionswork]

Interesting that curtain banks exist at all. Nothing similar comes up in the States. https://www.communityenergy.org.nz/curtain-banks/

[Austapteryx]

I would like to counter some of the views expressed here. Yes, some of the houses in New Zealand are undoubtedly poorly built, but having grown up in New Zealand, I would have to disagree that many are. It probably depends on where you are, and the North Island at least does not require the standard of housing present in Northern Europe. I would also point out that wood is a very practical construction material for houses in New Zealand as it withstands earthquakes much better than most of the alternatives. The house I grew up in was wooden, was not cold and was not damp, but it was suitably insulated. I do not recall any of the other ones I went to being damp or mouldy either.

On the subject of farming practices, I do remember the cartoon strips by Murray Ball about slips due to removal of trees. Again, this is not consistent across the country. I can remember my mother saying my grandfather found it hard to replant areas in trees which he had so laboriously cleared (My parents have now planted trees on the steeper slopes). I should say that it was not trees he had cleared but gorse. This is a big issue in NZ which is not mentioned above, but is a serious legacy of very early farming practices. That said, I now live in Australia, and was amazed at how few trees there are on the landscape here compared to what I grew up with in NZ. In relation to the cattle fouling up the streams, I should point out that animal life has always defecated, and rains will always wash some of this into the streams. This will not be prevented by fencing streams. The cattle on my parents property do not stand in the waterways, and I cannot recall ever having seen cattle do so. It is much easier for them to drink from a trough.

My parents consistently work with other farmers and read the latest research to improve their farming practices.

If I store my resources now so I can share them when there will be more requirement for them vs sharing them now, does that still make me a survivalist?

[irreversiblechaos]

I am an actual New Zealander and have a few points.

Houses. The houses are built of wood because that was what was available and in an earthquake give me a wood framed house although some towns in the south island have old brick homes. There’s even a clod house in Timaru somewhere. Thats the up side.

The houses built after 1980 should be insulated with the standard getting better unfortunately a lot of house built after 1990 leak and rot due to a free market approach to building standards

Houses built before 1980 only have insulation if retrofitted a proportion do but often only roof and floors insulation. I live in the central south island and my well built 1930’s house has almost no insulation and visible gaps around the doors although it sounds worse than it is as the temps rarely stay below 0 degrees C for the day with minimums of -8C generally rising to 10C in winter so quite bearable.

Money

Money is kind of like water in that you want to spread it around and slow it’s flow but taking the water thing further and mixing it with the little town I live in the problem with money is that it is only comes from a few wells far from most people (banks) and access to it is limited to those who already have assets (or buckets). It just doesn’t rain on everyone and it often takes a lot of hard work to get it but at insufficient amounts to survive with. This requires a top up from the government which takes it from others who often by luck have a bit more. Then we all have to give a portion back to the well so they can take it back to the thirsty mouths in Australia being their shareholders

As for animals in rivers this has always happened just we have a lot more animals because we need to export our way out of our debt as we need to grow the pie so that we can become a country rich enough to clean up our environment or something like that. At least we can rely on our house prices inflating to keep us going.

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