Terry:
You mention the fact that any acceptable commodity--for example, cigs in prison--can be used as form of money. With this in mind I repeat what I asked in an earlier thread, I hope you will read the following information and let us know what you think:

WHO HAS HEARD OF THE ECONOMIST BERNARD LIETAER? He is a great advocate of what I call complementary and community currencies (CCC's). Keep in mind that CCC's are not meant as a replacement for the normal national kind of currency; but as complementary to it, especially when normal cash is in short supply to most of us, except for the fortunate few among us who happen to be rich in cash. I first wrote about this idea in the 1960's:
Quote:
Jurriaan Kamp
This article appeared in Ode issue: 26 It was repeated in the Toronto Star--Canada's largest daily.

What is money? Do we need more of it to solve some of the world?s problems? Or is money the cause of them? Ex-banker Bernard Lietaer thinks the latter is the case. And he has the solution: a new kind of money.


You have no idea what money is. Bernard Lietaer is too friendly and modest a man to say it that way, but this is the easiest possible way to sum up his message. If you did know what money was, then you?we?would see to it that we had a different monetary system.
Everything revolves around money. It?s more than a clich?; it?s the daily experience of just about every world citizen not part of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon rain forest. And this daily experience involves, above all else, a continuous shortage of money.

There is not enough money to send the children to school. Not enough money for hospitals, or to care for the ever-greater numbers of old people who are getting ever older. Not enough money to clean up the environment and keep it that way. There is a lot of work to do, but no money to pay for it. Who among us is not familiar with the feeling of wanting to contribute something but having ?no money? to pay for that valuable contribution? The sad conclusion: If we just had more money, the world and our lives would be better.
For the complete article, go to:

http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4147

Also check out http://www.transaction.net

In Toronto, in the 1970's, I helped start a foundation, which helped start the Toronto Dollar system:

and http://www.torontodollar.com
BTW, the TD is backed by David Miller, the Mayor of Toronto.



G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org