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We all know the problem: in the coming dystopia of social credit scores and central bank digital currencies, our ability to buy and sell will be at the mercy of the criminals in government. . . . Unless we have an alternative means of transaction, that is. Join James for this exploration of survival currencies that already exist and how these ideas can be adapted to meet your communities’ needs.
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SHOW NOTES
Choke Point: How the Government Will Control the Cashless Economy
FDIC Admits To Strangling Legal Gun Stores Banking Relationships
Buying Items and Services With Bitcoin: A Look at Crypto Asset Accepting Merchants in 2021
Introducing Agorist.Market with Mike Swatek
Multi-party bartering app saves time, money, and the environment
Local Exchange Trading Systems
Greek Citizens Create New Currency To Tackle Eurozone Crisis (2012)
Money : Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
Paul Glover on How to Create a Community Currency
The Natural Economic Order by Silvio Gesell
A Strategy for a Convertible Currency by Bernard Lietaer
I’m looking at the Freedom Cell Network right now – looks like you can sign up or sign in, you can donate (this button works) but the video playlist does not work. This is not very hopeful!
Collect guitars
In northern Washington State they have a yearly barter fair that has been continuous for the last 50 years!
I think any form of alternative trade or currency has to start with food supply. In the Western world where small farms are a rarity, this will prove very difficult unless we can connect globally to farms in places like India etc. If someone can set up that direct link, then maybe we can all help each other out.
During the Great Depression there was a Grocery Store in Port Angeles WA that issue written Script for food/products at the Store. The Script got to be so well accepted by the local population that it was traded like Money for most anything.
This Story of this successful local means of exchange has a similar ending as “the-miracle-of-worgl”, in that it was crushed by agents of the Federal Reserve. It is said that someone took one of these local Grocer Scripts into a Bank in Seattle hoping to get money for it, and the Bank alerted “The Authorities”.
Indeed, we have seen Decentralized Currencies work for the people, and we know the Central Banks don’t like competition,so they will crush it, if they can.
Interesting. I had to look that up.
So how exactly does a bank go about crushing this system?
If we can understand that, then it would be to put in place a counter response. I suppose tax would come into it. But that could be paid. However in that, an exchange would need to be set up.
As I travel about I notice a lot of money is spent on purely ornamental gardens. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to spend money on things of beauty, but I’d say the resources are there, it’s just a mental thing on how resources are allocated.
There’s no replacement for local food production. Importing foods from thousands of miles distant places of growth/production is lunacy. I believe this type of trading in the modern age is finacially viable only due to hidden taxes that are used to pad the pockets of merchants of doom.
This is something along those lines. This is the Irish group and they will link in with farmers in other countries and communicate directly. You can work then with farms you know share the same ethic
http://www.talamhbeo.ie/
Crypto is not a commodity money, it is not tangible. And that is its weakness.
Besides, being a commodity money doesn’t automatically lead to “hoarding” (hoarding is not bad in itself either), besides if the demand for money increases, ceteris paribus, price drop, and it is a good sign that people want to maintain cash balances.
Barter is out of question, there is no advantage in it, it is a primitive way of exchange and a medium of exchange (the most saleable good in the economy) quickly emerges out of it (Mises’s Regression Theorem).
What the great currency wizards are missing is that all currencies are or were commodities (even the current fiat currencies, which are money substitutes whose link to the underlying commodity (gold) was cut), and were not planned or imposed but naturally were brought into use as a money, except crypto but that’s another story.
When people start to hoard whatever it is that one calls “money”, that will inevitably lead to loss of velocity, which is going to strangle the market. This is something that abounds with examples in history. The well known “credit crunch” that lead to events such as the great depression, to name one.
That is not so say people should be disincentivized from saving, of course not. The true issue is the limited supply of “money” that is at the same time absolutely essential to prevent artificially imposed inflation (a.k.a. unseen tax on saving, labor, everything) and the scourge of velocity of exchange. Again, this is something that has been seen many times in history.
Barter has many advantages: can’t be controlled remotely by wannabe controllers, can not be taxed and it is as private as it can get. The absolute killer disadvantage is the extremely low velocity of exchange.
Naturally brought into use as money? The FED debt based “money”? Have you watched the FED documentary Corbett produced years ago?
mkey,
> When people start to hoard whatever it is that one calls “money”, that will inevitably lead to loss of velocity, which is going to strangle the market. This is something that abounds with examples in history. The well known “credit crunch” that lead to events such as the great depression, to name one.
The problem is the credit expansion, which redirects production efforts to less valuable goods than without it, not the credit crunch, the credit crunch is only the inevitable consequence of it. Read America’s great depression by Murray Rothbard.
Saving does not strangle the market but instead leads to a lengthening of the production structure, which leads to greater real incomes.
The so called problem of hoarding is a myth, if people do not exchange, it is because they value more the units of money they have to forgo than the available goods for purchase, society in general doesn’t get poorer because there are misers.
The velocity of money is a hollow concept, people get richer not because of how quickly exchange takes place, but how much of what consumers demand is produced.
> The absolute killer disadvantage is the extremely low velocity of exchange.
Really? Try to build an automobile in a barter economy. How are you going to pay your workers? How are you going to pay for the other factors? With autos? How are you going to find someone that will trade exactly what you need for your cars? The disadvantage is that you cannot possibly have a minimally developed economy without money. But even for the most primitive economies, barter does not last long, it is hard to exchange and to get what you want, that’s why media of exchange emerge.
> Naturally brought into use as money? The FED debt based “money”? Have you watched the FED documentary Corbett produced years ago?
I did. Before the fed notes were fiat currency, what were they redeemable for?
Bankers intentionally remove cash to reduce the velocity of “money” so that they can control, more easily, the market through credit. Credit, once repaid, is removed from the system leaving only a hole that needs to be filled with – more credit. Less “money” or cash, less velocity, weaker the market, looking at the bankers to save it from itself.
It also leads to “money” being lugged around in wheel barrows. How can the incomes be increased if there is less “money” to go around? By adding zeroes? Not all market issues are caused by savings, obviously, but savings do play a substantial role.
I would have to gouge my eyes out to agree with that.
Leave it to magical producers to coax the mummy out of its crypt.
And the amount of available lubricant has nothing to do with the process at all, got it. (full disclosure: sarcasm)
Nothing you listed there contradicts anything I wrote.
In scrip backed by actual products.
With scrip.
No need. Trade can be conducted in scrip issued by anyone and everyone who ever manufactured anything or at any point in time offered a service.
You absolutely do not understand, and will probably leave this world firmly convinced otherwise, that “money” is nothing but a limiter of energy in the system. It is the ultimate religion, the ultimate form of mind control. Untold billions have gone to their graves defending it and untold billions will follow.
And thousands of currencies before it, what were they redeemable for? What happened in the colonies when the gold was called back to the motherland?
> It also leads to “money” being lugged around in wheel barrows. How can the incomes be increased if there is less “money” to go around? By adding zeroes? Not all market issues are caused by savings, obviously, but savings do play a substantial role.
Monetary incomes are not the same as real incomes.
> And the amount of available lubricant has nothing to do with the process at all, got it. (full disclosure: sarcasm)
> How are you going to pay your workers?
> In scrip backed by actual products.
What products, fractions of cars? Who is gonna accept it? I wouldn’t after the first one.
How are you going to pay for the other factors? With autos?
> With scrip.
> The disadvantage is that you cannot possibly have a minimally developed economy without money.
> You absolutely do not understand, and will probably leave this world firmly convinced otherwise, that “money” is nothing but a limiter of energy in the system. It is the ultimate religion, the ultimate form of mind control. Untold billions have gone to their graves defending it and untold billions will follow.
Oh, of course, money is a conspiracy to make it easier to exchange goods, when we don’t have the goods that the owner of the good we want to purchase wants.
>> Before the fed notes were fiat currency, what were they redeemable for?
> And thousands of currencies before it, what were they redeemable for? What happened in the colonies when the gold was called back to the motherland?
Gold, silver or other precious metals.
Do yourself a favour and study economics, you will never understand economics by reading about conspiracies of the past.
Conspiracies of the past? I can’t believe you just wrote that. Anyhow, I’m not interested in dogmas and therefore I do not need to study economy. Economy is a dogma requiring blind belief into an invisible hand that makes the wheels turn greasing them with money. And tears and blood and sweat of countless slaves.
If you accept money as your god, at least be honest about it. I’m not out to get you. I simply do not care about anyone’s blind beliefs.
I understand I’m wasting my time here so I’ll keep it brief:
1) The auto manufacturers would have scrip other than “auto pcs 1 redemable by noon” to pay their workers with. The manufacturer would be swapping their scrip for other scrip coming from other manufacturer, especially that what they workers would find attractive and a good value.
2) If an auto manufacturer would pay me so well that I would be awarded one car every month, that would be a pretty good deal. Since these auto scrips would be redeemable elsewhere for whatever. Here we are obviously assuming this is reputable manufacturer, because otherwise their scrip auto payments wouldn’t be well accepted.
mkey says:
When people start to hoard whatever it is that one calls “money”, that will inevitably lead to loss of velocity, which is going to strangle the market.
Mkey is spot-on about this.
Velocity of money is keynote.
I would venture to posit that a populace becomes more joyful, productive and prosperous when the velocity of money, the interchange of goods and services, is snapping along at a smooth rapid clip.
While I like owning physical gold and silver, as a currency it has its problems. Velocity is one.
The “Cross of Gold” speech, delivered by William Jennings Bryan, was an attempt to put more “currency” into circulation.
EXCERPT
For twenty years, Americans had been bitterly divided over the nation’s monetary standard. The gold standard, which the United States had effectively been on since 1873, limited the money supply but eased trade with other nations, such as the United Kingdom, whose currency was also based on gold. Many Americans, however, believed that bimetallism (making both gold and silver legal tender) was necessary for the nation’s economic health. The financial Panic of 1893 intensified the debates….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Gold_speech
We have already touched this topic a number of times. I find Bill Still shows this issue well in his documentary “The wizard of Oz” but he leads into a conclusion I don’t agree with, that the government needs to control the printing and that would/should work well, somehow.
I agree. The distinction that needs to be made is between a ‘universal exchange’, that being money and ‘capital’ which is money used only for investment.
Money is an exchange mechanism.
Capital is an investment mechanism.
Barter, harkens-back to feudalism, which ironically is where many wish to return.
All currencies are commodities as you state for under capitalism EVERYTHING is turned into a commodity: from womb to tomb we are presented with our own alienation in the form of commodity existence.
In terms of “the horse” establishing a general prioritization list for what is important for “survival” helps to promote brainstorming. When you challenge someone to think about their own survival, many will flip into a fear-state which clouds thinking and complicates the process. This is what makes so many turn away from these scenarios we may play out for our friends and family… Deep down in their being the fear of the possibility of the dystopian scenario actually being true will shut them down and often make them lash out at the messenger, eh? You “Craaazy Conspiracy theorist”.
Establish the bare bones and then fill in the gaps around that.
So for survival:
-Consistent Food
-Consistent Shelter/clothing
-Consistent Medical (perhaps)
-Community/companionship
I am sure there are “preppers” in this network who are FAR more versed in this than I am, but I ask the question, “Are there different types of prepping?” Someone who only preps for Armageddon may not be as prepared for the “soft – dystopia” of The “Great” Reset. Just a thought.
As for community currency systems I have been a part of:
I am a clinician in Classical Chinese Medicine and I used to work as part of a “healing cooperative”. In theory it was a great set up, but there were issues with “the government” of said cooperative and it disbanded. Before that happened though, there was a community currency established. Just little fired clay pieces that had been imprinted with the indentation of a shirt button. Like Ithica, each piece was worth a certain period of labor within the collective. A half hour, or $30 of labor. People were free to accept the pieces and charge whatever they wished.
The problem was that not everyone accepted them and not everyone was worth paying for their service. Not every “healer” is alike. Also there were too many people who practiced the same thing. We had an over supply of ungrounded “energy healers” whom I wouldn’t trust my well-being to. I still have my clay pieces as a reminder of the possibility but also of its failure, including the collapse of the whole co-op.
Personally, I see myself as an able bodied person, but also one who has a keen knowledge of how the body functions most optimally. I see this skill as being “marketable”, in a “darker” future where I would trade my skills for food or other basics. I intend to refine my understanding and to be my own best producer of “currency”. Having a shared and agreed upon means of transaction helps with the cohesion of the community, something I am sure the agorists (original and legitimate anarchists) are aware of.
“I am a clinician in Classical Chinese Medicine and I used to work as part of a “healing cooperative”. In theory it was a great set up, but there were issues with “the government” of said cooperative and it disbanded.”
And this point must be made again and again: collectivism is not bad, as we are told by the lasting vapors of Reaganism and financial capitalism, it is whether the collectivism is voluntary.
And if t is voluntary and collective, then power has to be critically thought about for if a coop lacks cooperation it will fall into ruins.
Power is the issue, who wages it, who holds it and how to get it and how to use it.
I agree. Personal responsibility paired with a development of autonomy through the cultivation of “power” (the ability to set ones mind to doing something and succeeding) is imperative.
If each individual knows their own value, discovered through a continual process of self discovery, collectives naturally form and “governments” aren’t needed. If one is disempowered, it is a difficult mind state to break free of. As we move forward, many will need to be taught how to connect to their own unique place of “power”.
But what if each individual does not know their own value? What kinds of institutions, settings, societal arrangements etc.need to be fostered to help people accomplish the empowerment you speak of?
A very good question. If an individual does not know their own value I feel it is incumbent on the collective to help this person find that value be it through consciously intended action or as a natural result of the growth and development of the collective.
This is where good leaders and teachers are needed. Ones who do not exploit the power loaned to them by the people they lead or teach.
A lot of what I do in my clinical practice is teaching my clients/patients how to empower themselves. Ironically, they give over some of their power to me so that I can return it to them in the form of teaching how to connect with their own mind and its genuinely creative ability. Through this process one is able to interact with their own mind/body (I don’t see them as separate) in a more clear way, and as a result, “value” tends to manifest of its own accord.
In terms of institutions, settings and societal arrangements… Long term, a collective will need to trend beyond just “surviving” towards having a stable and established social order. Through this process, each member of the collective will discover his/her own value. Yes, it may help if someone says, “Hey Jimmy, your vegetable yields are the best of our group, so you are our best farmer.” But unless Jimmy feels that way himself then value is somewhat limited.
Again, where teachers and leaders come in is the demonstration of how to wield power in a “value”-able way, and thus others can emulate through their own actions and self-discovery.
It really takes a group of selfless leaders to facilitate this process, imho.
Tao te Ching Verse #17 summarizes it pretty well:
When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.
If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.
The Master doesn’t talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, “Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”
-Steven Mitchell version
I agree. Midwives, not didactic teachers, coupled with meaningful and democratically run labor help people find a sense of worth and value. Only community can provide individual value and although this sounds counter-intuitive it is not. It is the quality and the essence of community that must be scrutinized.
Self actualized, self-worth comes from the fruits of ones’ labor in life with others. And it is a process of Think-Act-Think, not Act-Think-Act.
For as the carpenter said so long ago: meausre twice, cut once.
Only through conscious, productive communities of caring can we hope to disentangle ourselves from both the material slavery we live under and the mental canopy of despair that informs us.
Truth!
I’ve read a lot through this intriguing thread. I’m 65 and low income, keen to do more yet a bit stifled by less than optimal vitality. Your comment is replete with good will and upholds the intrinsic value in participation. I have a food garden but I need help to make it produce better. I have knowledge and skills just need a more vital helper or two. We could make good things happen…food, fruit, veg, flowers… your comment gave me an inner boost. Thank you heaps…. 🙂
Part one
The nature of derived and masked fear is particularly and exceptionally profound and enlightening. I agree. And I will add in two parts a bit of now deceased Richard Lichtman on our human condition, masochism and alienation which I think applies; solo as a point of view.
““When we use terms like “masochism” we usually take for granted that we are speaking of individual pathology. However, consider that every social system is obviously inseparable from the channeled energies of its participants. In fact, each system is the embodiment of these energies, so organized as to form a larger and more persistent whole. So it is that the failure of our society, the harm it imposes on us, is in unavoidable measure the effort and product of our own lives. It is because we act out the forms of personhood required by our society that it is able to accumulate its power to force us into acting against ourselves. So masochism is not an individual occurrence but the basic imposition by which we construct the processes that deconstruct us. Constructing the powers of a destructive society, we deconstruct the ideal possibilities inherent in ourselves.”
Masochism is profoundly alienation imposed from within and without. Fear, avoidance and denial, is the large culprit
Part Two
“Of course, we are not self-consciously aware of this fact, but it occurs as it does regardless of our self-conscious ignorance. We make the social world that is our undoing. We produce the institutions and structures that maintain our very subordination. Our energies, which we define in terms of self-aggrandizement and rational self-interest, are beyond our understanding, the very opposite of what they initially claim. Our vaunted self-interest is self-denial, our cherished self-realization, the destruction of what we hold most dear.”
Richard Lichtman,professor at the Wright Institute, SF
Basically,self-delusion
“True desire can be discerned and recognised through willingness to speak and listen within and to each other, and then free willing alignment is inspired or called forth to meet the situation or undertake the endeavour or simply walk with what is as a new and deeper perspective.”
Crucial point. Critical thinking is dialogical, requires entering into points of view not keeping with ones’ own for the purposes of reasoned judgment. You say ‘true desire’ and yes, for in the Society of the Spectacle our desires are commodifications of the world around us.
What we truly want and truly need have been configured.
There are moral dimensions to our thinking and civility,empathy and courage are just three.
Seeking out, with passion, points of view contrary to ones own and then reconciling these points of view with ones’ own point of view is the mental lifting.
And providing opportunities for people to engage points of view not keeping with their own for the benefit of critical analysis and reflection is a solution to our dilemna.
If not, we become the tailors of our own straightjacket
“The desire to heal is different to the wish to change the world.
The conflict within is set as an attempt at external resolution.
If we understand that our world is our Result rather than our Cause, then we are free from trying to manipulate a world to ‘solve’ or ‘salve’ a mistaken and conflicted set of core beliefs and definitions.”
I disagree. I reference Lichtman which I posted. It is both: we are our engagement in the world and the world is our engagement. It is not one or the other; it is dialectical.
The threat of not being able to connect to the World Wide Web (which is often incorrectly used interchangeably with the Internet) is primarily a threat to servers used to conduct transactions because their location must be known to so many people and the World Wide Web (WWW) is run by ICANN, who can easily take control of any IP address or domain name they desire.
This is the threat to digitial currencies I do no see addressed.
I know some people may claim there exist “competitors” to the WWW, but on closer analysis you can immediately find that all of these “competitors” are running through WWW infrastructure, thus suffer all of the same weaknesses as running openly on the WWW.
The only way around this for digital currencies is to communicate through a physically separate network.
It’s worth noting that the fundamental unit of currency in modern times is the KWH of electricity. Like certain crypto currencies, it hard to lose trust in something this abstract and incorruptible.
Let’s see:- very large solid silver power lines across the Bering Strait to connect the two continents. The announcement of such a project would instantly jack the value of silver. (It might consume the entire world silver supply?)
Fact Checker
You’re no activist. You are a sofa sitter by your own admission on many previous comments. Like you often point out, you are just watching – not participating.
So, really, you play no active role in bettering conditions.
Sometimes, your comments can be like a fly in the kitchen.
I don’t think things are as dire as you say, not for people in the belly of the beast anyway. We haven’t yet been attacked, no bombs dropped on us. People have to try other ways and actually attempt solutions.
People will survive if their spirit refuses to be broken. Your points raised are good ones and should be kept in mind, but the tone sounds like someone who has given up. There will be food in the other cage, as you mentioned in your other post if one chooses to live like a rat.
I like rats, to be honest, they are social animals and special in their own way. But humans aren’t rats. We are much more intelligent and we will survive and “the machine” we have helped construct will perish if we actually put in the real-world effort.
There are lots of people who already barter and trade for services and things.
I know the state could probably ship anyone of us Americans out to Guantanamo bay. I’m aware that they do those things to people, but so far the worst thing I’ve had to do is pay taxes. And so far the “vaccine” is optional for me anyway. I think you have far more power than you think you do.
I think it’s true that the state apparatus for violence far exceeds what regular citizens can wield, but not everyone is a psychopath. I think so much of this is psychological manipulation and force injecting people would be impossible here in the US. That’s why they are saying there are vaccine shortages to get people to take them willingly.
Fact checker,
I’m a big believer in personal responsibility too. People need to just open their businesses up and stop cowering to the state. I’d go out to a restaurant if one was open. And parents can home school their kids or send them to a charter school. They don’t need to keep their kids at some crappy institution.
It’s terrible what the lockdowns are doing to people and people need to stop complying with it. They are choosing to just bend over and take it. A lot of people would rather collect a check than actually work too. Lots of people hate their crappy jobs and couldn’t be happier with the lockdowns. I know a few people who make more on unemployment.
I highly doubt a vaccine that isn’t completely FDA approved would be mandated by most employers. These drugs they are pushing don’t even stop transmission so there is no point in them. They are saying you still have to wear masks and “social distance” even if you take it. It’s absurd. There are lots of ways to defeat these possible mandates in court if people are actually willing to take a stand, which I am willing to do.
Grow a pair and stand up for yourself and for others if you don’t like what’s happening.
This may be slightly off-topic, however, it introduces a method of connecting with your community AND ties into the current ‘burning of the [digital] books,’ the past takedown of physical bookstores and newer limitations to access of physical libraries…
For many years, I’ve seen (& taken from and left inside) wooden boxes at the curb of random homes around various neighborhoods that house books. It’s part of an official program, I believe, called “Little Free Library” [online info here: https://littlefreelibrary.org/%5D. But information on the website appears much more complicated than what I’ve learned from it, simply by opening such a box taking a few books out (and, hopefully, having a book or two with me to put in). It’s amazing what can be learned from, not ONLY books I’ve serendipitously discovered in them… but from the neighbors who host them.
One experience occurred last year, shortly after the first STATE mask mandate (after a city one), when I think I could have held up a bank (assuming they actually had cash) by simply threatening to breathe! My children and I were driving home after a day of play in fun-filled defiance of public park lockdowns (which continued all Spring & Summer) and I was TIRED. But we had happened to take a different route home and saw a “new” (to us) ‘Little Library’ and they begged to stop. Despite my exhaustion, I agreed, “but really quick,” mommy’s ‘famous last words’ so-to-speak. As I lifted my youngest two to view the books inside, the neighbors came out – not with masks and a shotgun… but with big, inviting smiles and MORE BOOKS – anything & everything tailored to their ages and interests (and mine as well). We converse about their small front-yard herb garden. Then they offered us a tour of their backyard mini-farm with flourishing veggies, fruit trees, and chickens. Not once did “COVID” come up. Not once was anything in the realm of politics mentioned. It was like we had stepped into a completely different universe.
I’ve since seen more of these little free libraries & though I’m sure not all the hosts are the same, the idea is simplistic, fundamental, and controlled on a community level. I’ve recently seen not just books but other media: cds, dvds, dictionaries (both standard English and English-to-other various langs), books IN foreign languages, magazines &/or publications – some brand new, others dating as far back as 1933.
At the very least, this “take a penny, leave a penny” but in the form of books is a great start in 1. sharing information without outright censorship and 2. starting to build community connections.
BUMP – Anecdote
Community! This is where it starts. Good will and relationships.
correction the site link is here: https://littlefreelibrary.org/
To reiterate, I am not affiliated with this program/organization and know little of its official mission and nothing of its origins; just of its (thus far, positive) effects at my local level.
The little free library around the corner has been my life-saver over the past 10 months! I have to have a book bedside in order to fall asleep. Critical. With libraries closed I was at a loss until I discovered the local little free library. I love it.
Like you suggested superMom I began reading books I never would have picked up at the library. Have read some really moving stories.
I refuse to use the new “online” library where you order and then pick up at the library door, so I now buy used books at the local thrift store, and then place them in the little free library when I’m finished.
It’s a wonderful resource. And so simple.
Thank you for sharing this! Truly moving and inspiring. ???
sobrien,
Good idea which does exist currently, and is being used in some localities.
GOLDBACK – Paper currency infused with gold
“The Goldback is the world’s first voluntary, complementary currency to be made of a spendable, beautiful, small denomination, physical gold.”
I have this and have distributed it to many family members.
https://www.corbettreport.com/predictions-what-will-happen-next-in-the-corona-crisis/#comment-81572
The liability of HODL
(HODL is a term derived from a misspelling of “hold” that refers to buy-and-hold strategies.)
As James points out, there is a tendency to hold and not circulate this type of currency.
When I gifted all these family members small denomination Goldbacks, I was hoping that they were spread some bills around their community, a small rural town. I gave each person a light quantity of bills with the intent that they might “release” or share some of these bills around the area.
Naw.
Never happened.
They just “saved them”.
In my opinion, the way for any community to flourish is to have lots of currency in circulation. Circulation echoes commerce and activity and energy. The better the circulation, the healthier the community.
James I wonder if you have ever interviewed Dr. Edwin Vieira? I have searched the site and can find no mention of him.
Broc West did an excellent job on this presentation.
James was right. The visuals enhanced the learning and interest for me tremendously.
Well, I’ll be an Unterguggenberger…this Wörgl concept really strikes my interest.
The circulation aspect. I grasp the importance.
Not sure if James has saw it yet, but the letter he wrote in 2016 is eerily familiar to the experience a Trump supporter in Pennsylvania posted on a social media account, where he was held back twice and even interrogated by TSA thugs because facial recognition software identified him as a protestor in Washington DC.
I do likewise. “For now, I can only see value in real thrift. I work on maintaining, pharma-free health, spend the price of car on reconstructive dental work while driving a bomb, cross to the other side if I see a doctor or lawyer coming down the street, try to get value and give value in every transaction…”
Movie quote: “They can kiss my ass!”
Related to surviving and currency and community is a 1998 MOVIE which I enjoyed.
It takes place during the depression of 1935, but the movie carries an uplifting aesthetic harmonic.
There are some good lessons taught in the movie…how to handle authoritarians and confrontations…how to survive when currency is in short supply…how to shape relationships, trusts and community…the value of goodwill and the liabilities of loose tongues in counter-economics.
Martin Sheen narrates the story.
Shadrach
One hour 28 minutes
https://youtu.be/C4RRNakRE-c
It is also on Tubitv, but that is censored in some countries and is owned by Fox anyways.
I have those thoughts myself, that it seems like going backward. But before I feel like a saddo for wasting my energy, these old systems of exchange worked, bartering still happens in an effortless natural way, like you give someone a foot massage and they will be happy to return the favour, or at least be happier about cooking you dinner that night. There is no perfect financial exchange. What is wealth anyway? It is certainly not that void that billionaires fill with €$¥£. Doing good things with good people, feeling fulfilled and that you are earning the right livelihood is wealth. Look at how the internet blossomed because people made it what it is. There was no chief in charge, it just was. Much like the next way of communicating and exchange will be.
Corbetteers are beautiful, smart and cool in general, so whatever we build will reflect that.
I came up with a concept for a digital currency back in 2012, which was aimed at small producers. With two partners and a few investors, we got to set up the website and the company by 2013. Unfortunately, it eventually failed.
Indeed, the biggest mistake was to think it’s possible to put the cart before the horse, I learned that the hard way.
So, it certainly is necessary to create a community first. Fine, but on what basis? Similar political concerns on the current state of affairs? Well, in my case I can’t say that I would know many candidates for such community…
Nevertheless, there are a couple of things directly related to the present crisis that could actually be helpful:
1. Cash has become much less used, yet it still has the same value.
2. Many are now facing a dire economic situation and would be open to join a group if there was a possibility to earn something from it.
Anyway, I very much agree that it isn’t about one single idea that will solve everything. Instead, different proposals could come to fruition, evolve, merge, so on and so forth.
SILVER
If you had planned on getting a little silver for an emergency, it might be a good idea to hurry up with the idea.
https://www.corbettreport.com/thegreatreopening-solutionswatch/#comment-103561
SILVER
Epic!
An Epic Event is coming…I can smell it!
Get ready.
The ‘common man’ across the world might just be a juggernaut that “The Powers That Should Not Be” can not stop.
Wake up the cheerleaders.
Our side just might score big-time!
SILVER – UPDATE again – Highlighting an Aspect
This is bigger than the stock market.
Anyone, anywhere, any age can participate.
Just buy physical silver.
Sure… dealers are out right now, but you can still order silver. It may take months before delivery, but that’s a good thing because it highlights silver’s value.
This is a movement which has gone beyond the Reddit “WallStreetBets” stock market, because anyone can participate.
A person does not have to be in the stock market for this campaign.
Silver’s Schadenfreude!
Beat the snot out of these bankers! What are they gonna do?…Are they gonna try to tell ya that your physical silver has no value?
Here in the states, I got up too early. I’m too pumped. I’m waiting for the sun to come up and places to open.
Hi everyone,
On the broad subject of solutions, as opposed to problem analysis, here is an idea that may be worth implementing:
Similar to many that have already been initiated in the past and even at the present time, it would be very easy to set aside a day of the week or month where everybody who is aware of it, disengages from the system in some way. This may be by turning off your phone, not buying anything with fiat money, turning off the modem, perhaps even not going to work for a day, etc. If we were to pick a specific thing and a specific time to do these things it could really have an impact. It’s easy enough for everybody to do and doesn’t require the zombies to participate in order to be worthwhile.
Perhaps every Wednesday for 1hr between 12PM-1PM GMT we all turn off our mobile phones?
What do you think?
Hi AB,
Personally, and in a similar spirit to what you propose, my phone stays home all the time, I haven’t watched TV in years, I always pay in cash and there’re probably a couple of other things in my daily life of that same nature. Although I’m not sure this is exactly what you mean.
You talk about doing it all at the same time to create an impact. Can I ask you what sort of impact you have in mind and what the objective is with your suggestion?
Hi Dalesco,
I too, do all of the things you mention already. What I mean is something that everybody does (those that don’t already do it) at the same time en masse. Enough people to actually be able to measure a drop in volume, yet simple enough that everybody would be willing to do it – and do it regularly and routinely.
Ordinarily, many solutions require the involvement of the zombies, which in my opinion, will never happen, but the sort of things I’m referring to should be sufficiently voluminous to be effective without their involvement. Furthermore, these actions are far less likely to cause the zombies to feel the need to inhibit our efforts by taking on the role of citizen policemen.
So just like you might organise a protest on a certain date at a certain time, you’d organise to take part in (or disengage from as the case may be) one of these actions at a certain time each week.
#FlashMobs
20 people walk into a store and rip off their masks.
Maybe they even sing We are the people. We are the power. We are the 99%
Then they walk out. Maybe even inviting other shoppers to join them as they move on to the next store down Mainstreet
And then they all get kettled by the police, shipped off to detainee camps and never heard of again.
As James says: Do you think there’s any way out of this without a confrontation? And: Now is better than later, after the US becomes China.
No, there is not. but what is needed is organized resistance, not simply stunts. Strategy not comedy.
Problem is that too many think an organized population is the dirty old ‘collectivism’ and thus prefer individual solutions to social problems.
” If so, then all this mental exercise to come up with ways to support an “independent” modern material existence, by resorting to primitive and extinct cultural practices, is a vain exercise is constructing sandcastles at low tide.”
Agreed. No such thing as an independent modern material existence. The preppers can have a go at it.
Material reality has changed, the toothpaste it out of the tube and looking for an idealistic and mythological past is really the job of professional fascists and revanchists.
I understand the need to act. I understand the need to act with people. But we must be smart in our actions. We must put ourselves in the shoes of our adversaries if we are to plan resistance that is meaningful
It’s worth a try, mate.
If you’re in London, you could rip your mask off and holler: Remember Trafalgar square!
How many got locked up that day?
The Primary Currency of James Corbett
Other Corbett Report Members can probably express the following concept in a much better way than I can.
But I will give the bat a swing.
James Corbett most often spends the same currency which we sometimes see in other communities. Personally, I most often see the spending of this currency in rural communities and very small towns.
So, what does James Corbett spend most?
Goodwill and favors.
It is all Voluntary. And genuine, not counterfeit nor veiled.
Weekly, James Corbett produces a bunch of great, informative content. What does he do with it? He gives it away freely, voluntarily, all with goodwill. No strings attached. He is not even slipping in an ad for gold/silver coins, nor vitamins, nor a homestead lot at “Freedomland Argentina”.
Sure…James Corbett offers a Membership. What does it cost? $12 a year (or more if you wish).
What does a Member get that a non-Member doesn’t get? – Nothing. Virtually, a non-member gets exactly what a member gets.
Oh…wait…Members occasionally get access to a tidbit podunk video such as embedded in the recent article: The Year Ahead – Part 3: Geopolitics
https://www.corbettreport.com/the-year-ahead-part-3-geopolitics/
However, I don’t see a line forming to watch the 24 minute Beatles Battle! – Subscriber Exclusive #100
DESCRIPTION: You know Vinnie Caggiano. You’re familiar with James Corbett. But now it’s time to settle The Ultimate Question: Who is the bigger Beatles fan? Join quizmaster Broc West for this gripping steel cage match for the undisputed world title of Beatlemaster.
I’m sure there are some women out there who would get a membership just to catch a glimpse of Broc West on this video. But I should warn them that he is married with a baby. So those women should scrap that dream unless they want to see a Vietnam War 2.0.
My point in all this…
Goodwill and favors are a widely circulated currency.
Personally, I think it has the benefit of helping to establish communities.
Dear James, I, too, believe in putting the horse before the cart. Community is indeed important, and in this day and age of social media and “selfies” and “Zoom-buddies,” developing community “in person” is becoming a lost art. Even in Christian churches, there can be a lot of superficiality without genuine heart-to-heart intimacy and trust. So very many are in the world and of the world, and yet the Lord Jesus Christ calls His own disciples to be in the world as light and salt (as holiness unto God) but not of this world. I’ve written a 5-page teaching article titled, “What Truly Pleases God?” from May 22nd, 2009. I wish to paste in one particular paragraph from page 4:
“In these present days, these last days before Christ’s return, there is indeed a distinction between those who are of this world’s system, and those who are of Christ’s kingdom. The mark of the Beast is for those who rely upon the world’s system for buying and selling. However, those who are marked by Almighty God are submitted to His dominion and governance, and function through His kingdom principles of giving and receiving. We learn to give what we have in prompt obedience to the Holy Spirit to meet someone’s need, without expecting anything in return. We learn to receive from the Lord exactly what we need through the pathways of His choosing in His perfect timing without coveting what others might have. Some Christians have uttered in response, “Well, I expect to do much bartering when I cannot buy or sell.” No, dear friends, it’s not about what you can do, assigning value for value. It’s all about being obedient to the Father’s will and giving when He says to give, while always trusting Him to provide what you need while practicing contentment. Then you will be able to join the Apostle Paul in saying: “… for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11b-13).”
Although it seems that the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is being driven “underground,” the Holy Spirit has still united us who cling to Jesus as our Lord and Giver of Life. During these last of the Last Days before Christ’s return, the Lord is expecting (and enabling) His own to trust in Him and His sure word of promise found within the pages of The Holy Bible. He doesn’t want us to be fear-driven but faith-led. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6).
[SNIP – Please keep comments to 500 words or less. Longer comments can be split into multiple posts. -JC]
Hi James. Thanks for the solutions report on Survival Currency. I didn’t know about many of those alternative currencies you show in your talk. I do vaguely remember the Ithaca experiment.
I read “Inside Hitler’s Greece” by Mark Mazower last month. A very good book that is very pertinent to today’s world.I also watched TIK’s video “Wheat or Coffins”, which was based on Mazower’s book. YouTube demonetized “Wheat or Coffins” because it shows how the Nazi lockdown of the Greek economy led to starvation.
The Greek Drachma went to zero so the Greeks used all manner of things for currency including travel permits and other forged papers.
In POW camps cigarettes and or chocolate was used for money.
The Nazis stole all the gold from the Jews in Salonica, Greece. The Gestapo tortured the Jews until they coughed up the gold. Then the Jews were sent to the camps and 80-90% of the Jews died.
The Nazis funded the occupation of Greece for a full year using the stolen gold.
So, a community first, eh? All right. I look around my neighborhood and see three maybe four households I trust; 8 people. The other neighbors are either mentally ill or assholes or both.
The monasteries worked as communities in the Dark Ages. Beer and agricultural goods were bartered with the local farmers and townspeople.
A community would have to have something in common like Christianity.
Thanks for the talk.
Hi James, your pronounciation of Wörgl was pretty damn well! No worries.
Greetings from Germany
This can work IMO but keep in mind that these people know how to reduce the cash flow by simply draining the market of cash/coin/precious metals. At that point, even paper currency has some intrinsic value that can be dialed up or down from a comfy chair on an undisclosed centralized location.
HaveNeed is part of the World Economic Forum’s Uplink Platform:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210121235902/https://www.haveneed.org/post/have-need-accepted-to-world-economic-forum-s-uplink-platform
So government doesn’t want people buying coins (gold, silver) and ammunition? Hmmmm. What to do, what to do?
One mentor had lived through most of the 1900’s. He used to say (in the thickest down east drawl you can imagine): well, i don’t mind tellin’ya, I seen times people would rather accept a sears and roebuck pay check with endorsements right down the back than taking treasury notes, or so called cash”
people were trading paychecks, and could take the “pay check” back to the store and get something useful for it…
Great discussions here in the comments. Thanks everyone!
I want to highlight a video from the show notes about the future of exchange and the new possibilities of credit.
https://beyondmoney.net/2020/01/26/the-exchange-revolution/
While Thomas Greco Jr. may not be as captivating a presenter as Corbett is, his discussion and elaboration on self issued credit and credit clearing networks is so enlightening! He really dives into the hows and whys of these systems, provides examples of success and ways to improve. Also noteworthy were his ideas for implementation and marketing. For anyone serious about bringing these ideas into their community, I highly recommend!
Also, towards the end, at the (52 min mark) he shows a short animation by Paul Gringon about self-issued credit. While simplistic, it is well worth the 7 minute watch. Here is the youtube link to The Essence of Money https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_dwL9lqVBxY
And Here is a more recent presentation by Thomas Greco Jr. from November 2021 titled
Transcending the present political money system–the urgent need and the way to do it
Here he discusses the exploitation in the modern era as well as challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for us in the economy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wQbN8BNRVTA
(FYI James this link from the shownotes at archive is dead. Money : Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.) https://archive.org/details/Money-Understanding_and_Creating_Alternatives_to_Legal_Tender-Excerpts
Thank you, James for this excellent overview (sin dogma) of possibilities by which communities may conduct commerce outside the current central banking scheme. My interest was particularly peeked by your mention of a new barter platform, ‘haveneed’. I took the time to delve a bit into their website and was impressed by the mechanics and use of technology to make bartering a much more viable and convenient medium of exchange… UNTIL I read their terms of service. I would strongly encourage anyone contemplating the use of this platform to read through it in its entirety. A few glaring red flags for me were the requirement of users to have an active Facebook account, a lengthy list of ‘prohibited’ items and the user’s agreement to be ‘commodified’ wherein the user becomes the product. Just my .02 Federal Reserve Notes worth…
HISTORICAL RECORD…
FLASHBACK: Solutions: Survival Currency (2021)
(In the USA) On Sunday, February 27th, 2022, “Episode 394 – Solutions: Survival Currency” was featured as a revisit on the Home Page of Corbett Report.
Anyone who has NOT watched this episode will be severely handicapped in a number of ways. This becomes evident when a person follows the episode.
Potato money!
Take a look at growing potato in a bucket :
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=grow+potatoes+in+a+bucket+uk+
I have done this for 3 years now, sucessfully.
Add a copper tape, around the bucket, to prevent snails.
This year i am going to use sheep wool, on top of the soil too. To prevent from other bug’s.
Everybody can do this, and it does not require much work.
So there is the proof, that you can grow money.
Roy
Excellent presentation James, thanks for all the great links.
How about using heirloom seeds as currency? There is some historical precedent for this.
A seed can produce a plant that can produce food, shelter and all of our most valuable resources. If you don’t plant them, they die. This form of exchange discourages people from keeping large stockpiles of seeds to themselves. The result is a culture of generosity where seeds that are not needed are shared with those who do need them. This shared value among the members circulating seeds brings cohesion among the community.
Gold & Fiat (none of this is news to you James, but I will do a brief rundown as to provide a summary comparison between these forms of ‘currency’ for anyone else reading this)
The opposite appears when a system is based on something like gold. This system is based on the fact that something must be scarce in order to have value. Wars have been waged and environmental landscapes destroyed in order to accumulate this scarce product. The result is competition, hoarding and wealth concentration.
After gold, we created money, which was later decoupled from gold. This is fiat currency, which is based simply on trust in the governments that issue them. When there is no trust in the issuing body, the currency loses all its value.
Cryptocurrencies often have a lot of characteristics that appeal to me but (as you pointed out) their weak point is their shared dependence on requiring computer systems to be accessible and usable.
While gold or cryptocurrency may be a preferable alternative in the short term for investing in something more stable in value and less restricted/controlled by plutocrats than fiat currency (conventional banking systems) I also think there are potential situations in which all of the above would be rendered practically worthless. EMP devices or naturally occurring CMEs (geomagnetic storms) could cripple telecommunication networks and personal hardware that transmits/verifies and stores cryptocurrency.
For some historical context and scientific background on large scale geomagnetic storms and what they are capable of, research “The Carrington Event”.
(continued..)
..If hyperinflation happens here (like it did in Germany or Zimbabwe) and/or one of several other centralized systems collapses or is crippled (such as energy/fuel distribution or telecommunication networks) there may come a time when the only people who are eating are those that know how to grow and preserve their own food (and save seed). In such a hypothetical situation (in what you have humorously described as a “zombie apocalypse”) I don’t know if anyone would be willing to trade shiny pieces of metal or gems etc for that which has intrinsic value (food, water, seeds, clothing, soil, tools etc). Things like gold/silver may retain some degree of perceived worth in the short term, but if major components of our hyper-centralized modern western civilization implode there will likely come a time when seeds, food, practical/durable tools, knowledge and skills will be more valuable than paper, data or shiny objects that one cannot eat.
Thus, I will invest my time and energy in some of the alternative currencies listed above (‘to hedge my bets’), but I will also heavily invest in the living currency of the Earth (soil and seeds).
I am not suggesting that it would be wise to try and make heirloom seeds our sole method of exchange, there are far too many limitations for living seeds to be an effective medium for engaging in mutually beneficial large scale collaborative efforts and for providing our more material technological wants and needs, rather I suggest that perhaps using seeds as currency in our local communities could begin to weave a sort of fabric of cohesion, resilience and reverence for the Earth that can provide part of the foundation for an alternative way of living and community structure we build using a number of alternative currencies, concepts, organizing principals, viewpoints and defensive strategies that can give us solid footing as we strive to resist/dismantle the global oligarchic empire and one day leave it behind.
“What survives collapse? What survives crisis?
Community.
..What ever you give and contribute into your community and you generate that goodwill, and you generate those structures of taking care of each other and reciprocal (gift) relationships… that is an investment. That is a savings account that fires cannot burn and thieves cannot steal.
The best investment you can make is generosity, for only thing that cannot be taken from you is that which you give.”
https://youtu.be/dy_8ZGq-FSE?t=1329