Should Lakewood Print It's Own Currency?

[Bill Call]

I think Jim O thought of this a few years ago. It seems communites across the country are actually printing their own money.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Ba ... -cash.aspx

Using homemade currency for local vendors and other business seems small potatoes.

Why not pay City workers and school board employees in "Lakewood Dollars" instead of American Dollars? Everytime the school board or City signs up for another round of raises all the treasurer has to do is crank up the copy machine.

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

[Stan Austin]

Just heard on the police scanner---- customer trying to pass phony money to a clerk

oh wait, it's just Bill Call trying to secede from these United States of America.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I think Jim O thought of this a few years ago. It seems communites across the country are actually printing their own money.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Ba ... -cash.aspx

Using homemade currency for local vendors and other business seems small potatoes.

Why not pay City workers and school board employees in "Lakewood Dollars" instead of American Dollars? Everytime the school board or City signs up for another round of raises all the treasurer has to do is crank up the copy machine.

Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Bill


This was another one of those "silly VAL" programs that everyone laughed off, but some
of us did the homework and really looked long and hard into this. Ken Warren and Denis Dunn
both were huge "Community Currency" advocates. At one point Ken and I were going to
launch "Lakewood Grinders" backed with silver. We had figured that $250,000 would have
been a good starting point and I want to say silver was at $4.60 and ounce.

But another civic group came out with "certifichecks" and talked like it was community
currency, when all it was is a night amre barter system that always fails. They laughed
at the idea, they failed, the company went bankrupt and a bunch of people holding
cerifichecks that were worthless. So the civic group that steals every idea and then proceeds
to screw them up did it again!

Meanwhile, silver sky rocketed and "Lakewood Grinders" would have been worth 8 times
the price they were issued at. So every $5.00 Grinder would have been worth $40.00
which would have caused hording of the grinders which would have caused more
reinvestment at a much higher level.

Still it is working in Ithaca, Toronto and elsewhere. Just goes to show what the different
is between the Visionary Alignment for Lakewood, as opposed to silly people trying to
build success on low hanging fruit that has been done elsewhere and failed.

All so sad.

No program from the VAL has ever failed, all are doing better than any other programs
launched at the same time. But we were chastised for crazy thinking. At some point this
city will need to at least try to buy a clue, to charting a real future for Lakewood, or just
follow the rest usually ten years later.

All so sad.


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[Jim O'Bryan]

In our sister publication the Heights Observer


http://heightsobserver.org/read/3/2/residents-explore-launching-local-currency-


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