Truly Revolutionary: Greek city starts “rebel” barter economy and alternative currency
- “You have much more than your bank account says. You have your mind and your hands.”
The October 1st New York Times story covering the emergence of a barter, trade, and alternative currency economy in Greece is one of the most important stories of our day.
The Silver Circle Movie is a story about a band of rebels who vow to take back their freedom amid the economic and political ruins of a catastrophic monetary collapse, but our fictional movie’s predictions for America’s not-so-distant future are the real world economic realities in Greece right now, and the New York Times piece tells the story of real-life rebels taking their future, their prosperity, and their economic freedom back into their own hands, bucking the Eurozone’s fiat monetary system in favor of providing real value in exchange for real value. ...
In Greece today, the real rebels aren’t the thousands of protesters angry at the government’s austerity measures, but these few honest, rugged souls who are flourishing on the merits of their own hard work, innovation, and cooperation with others in their local community. These emerging barter and alternative currency networks are happening at the intersection of the most stalwart conservative values and the most ardent hippie ideals. ...
The new Greek barter economy combines and exemplifies the influences of decentralization, free markets, a strong work ethic, and rugged individualism, as well as the ideals of localism, sustainable living, cooperation, and community organization –all shot through with a healthy dose of the Silicon Valley start-up mentality: innovative, problem-solving, entrepreneurial, and full of bright optimism instead of the fear and resignation that characterizes so many markets and communities today. ...
What if the alternative currencies and barter economies created by people like Theodoros Mavridis simply grew to replace centrally-issued paper currencies as the predominant monetary products the same way email, companies like FedEx, and even text messaging have come to replace centralized, government-sponsored services for exchanging parcels and information? Not as the result of some great ideological revolution, followed by a major political reform, but simply because the alternative works better and people like it more? ...
“Even the government is taking notice. Last week, [the Greek] Parliament passed a law sponsored by the Labor Ministry to encourage the creation of ‘alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development,’ including networks based on an exchange of goods and services. The law for the first time fills in a regulatory gray area, giving such groups nonprofit status.”
Full story at silverunderground.com
