chiemgauer

[Plane]

A Euro Substitute?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128462416

The alternative currency is not some gimmicky fundraiser. It may look a little like Monopoly money, but the chiemgauer is real. One chiemgauer equals one euro. It's been around for eight years, almost as long as the euro, the common currency now used by 16 of the 27 EU members.

Gelleri, a high school teacher who established the chiemgauer, is proud that more than 600 regional businesses — from drugstores to architects — now accept the microcurrency.

"The chiemgauer is connected to the region. You can't speculate with it, you can't buy stocks or options or shares with it," he says.

In other words, you can only spend it in the area. Organizers insist the currency is meant to promote a "buy local" mentality and is a complement to the euro. The chiemgauer is not backed by federal or local governments, though some banks are offering loans and checking accounts in the currency.

But the fact that there are more than two dozen regional currencies like this in Germany — the most anywhere in the world — underscores the German ambivalence toward the euro.

[Xavier_Onassis]

There are a number of American cities that have various barter bucks programs. I don't think that the main intent is dissatisfaction with the euro or dollar, it is mostly to encourage and show solidarity with the community. It also prevents wealth from flowing out of the area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States

The value is pegged to the euro, so I do not see that this indicates a rejection of the euro.
Ithaca NY pegs its currency to hours of work, rather than dollars. But I don't think the intent is to show a rejection of the dollar. It is more like an opportunity to give a choice to people of the economic system they wish to participate in, in the same way that a food cooperative provides an alternative to the profit-motivated supermarket.

[Plane]

It isn't some part of the economy that doesn't support Greece?

[Xavier_Onassis]

It isn't some part of the economy that doesn't support Greece?

Perhaps, but you seem to have missed the point of the local currency movement.

The use of local currency and barter schemes supports local people and their businesses, so I suppose if this chemgauer is being used in Germany, then it not only excludes Greece, but other parts of Germany and the EU as well.

But it is a POSITIVE thing, like insisting on buying tomatoes or other produce from local gardeners and farmers, getting your fruit and veggies at U-Pick farms. It is not done with any intent to exclude Greeks or anyone else.

If you go to a locally produced theatre, you do not do this in order to send movie companies in Hollywood or Broadway theatre producers any sort of message: you do it to connect to your community.

[Plane]

A taxaholic government won't appreaciate the local nature of the effort.

The Central tax authority will want all localities to chip in their maximum potential.

Meanwhile in Greece itself tax collection is problematic.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I am thinking that the central taxing authority will pay the same amount of attention to this as the IRS does to Ithaca hours: little to none. To try to tax this would simply cause more people to use barter schemes and such. And to attack it would be seen as an attack on regional pride. I do not expect that the Greek crisis will have even a minimal effect on the use of chiemgauer, nor should it.