Across America, hungry families struggle to feed their children within hiking distance of fallow farms. We have underemployed people and widespread food insecurity near agricultural capacities that could readily provide for them. Communities empowered by a local means of exchange could eliminate hunger and improve the care economy. They can become the fabled “village” needed as better places for families to raise children.
Why “radical?” A core belief shared across political perspectives is questioned
There are hungry children and considerable food insecurity within hiking distance of farms that could feed them. Ninety-five percent of the 1600 farms in Pierce County, Washington, earn less than $50,000 annually. Farmers list other professions as their primary source of income. Large dairy and poultry operations have disappeared. If local farms cannot compete in national markets, they are not allowed to feed their neighbors.
The capacity to eliminate food insecurity is clearly available. How do we get the money to pay for it? That is the wrong question. We need a means of exchange so people can exchange work for food. Humanity has been inventing and reinventing money for 10,000 years. Why quit now? The digital economy allows us to devise an efficient local means of exchange.
Imagine a community cooperative mutual credit union, CMCU, with accounts in Digital Bucks (DB). DB is a local means of exchange transferred between members via debit cards. People can both earn DB and spend them. The condition for membership is the willingness to accept DB in payment. DB cannot leave the credit union or be exchanged for dollars. Dollars exchanged for DB become community capital. No one is required to use DB. Exchanges via DB are entirely voluntary. It is a free market. Obviously, this will be a challenge for big box stores whose primary function is to extract dollars from the community.
Members would start with token balances. People earn DB by working or exchanging products. It is more efficient than barter. Additional DB could be created by the CMCU when a member organization, company, cooperative, or group identifies an unmet need and available resources to meet that need. Farmers could request DB credit to be paid as wages and replenish their credit by DB food sales while selling surplus produce in the dollar market. Habitat for Humanity could use DB to pay people to construct homes, provided it would accept DB payments. As DB circulates among members, a community market will grow accordingly.
We should peg DB value to common goods as a basis for pricing and exchanges. About two hours of agricultural work in the US produce enough food to feed a family of four for a week. A person working four hours for DB wages could afford to feed their family for a week. Local medium-scale agriculture could grow food for the community by paying DB wages. The goal is to eliminate food insecurity.
Would local production be efficient? We measure economic efficiency by comparing costs and value created in dollars. Why? Because dollars are our most expensive and scarce resource. There is never enough money to meet our needs. DB-enabled local-scale production would be “efficient” simply because it utilizes land, equipment, facilities, and labor that command no dollar value.
The limitation would be the availability of underemployed resources and people. However, if people discovered that ten or fifteen hours of work a week brought significant benefits, many retirees, teens, and others might participate in the market. Cultural, religious, and non-profit organizations would thrive in a local DB economy. People could form local businesses and cooperatives empowered by a local means of exchange.
This is not socialism. From the community perspective, we already have “socialism.” Almost every aspect of our local economy is controlled and directed by remote authorities, whether banks, large corporations or the federal government. A DB mutual credit system would be a local voluntary pure free market.
The most essential function of communities is to raise children. People cannot afford children. Families are time bankrupt, and two incomes are necessary to survive. DB markets could make communities excellent places for families and children.
Why not pay DB for the work of parenting? Every child represents increased work. That work is necessary and crucial for a well-functioning society. Yet, we are not willing to pay for that work. For the most part, our children are under served.
Once parenting becomes valued work, a market can emerge, leading to efficiencies. Door-to-door laundries and diaper services would displace environmentally detrimental home laundries. Unique, innovative services could develop within short residential radii. Communities would become loci of innovation across the care economy lowering costs with less dependence on distant authorities.
A thriving empowered community would have a lower cost of living. Dollar wages would increase in real value attracting employers. Both monetary systems could work in tandem as a self-regulating market emerges between local and import supply chains.
The notion of empowered communities is not new. Jane Jacobs argued that cities were the basis of economic development. Cities thrived through import substitution and a well-developed hinterland. Empowering communities with their own digital credit systems would expand their capacities across all parts of the local care economy. Empowered communities could eliminate hunger in many parts of America. Increased local control of the care economy via a free market would benefit all.
We all take for granted a monetary system which is becoming increasingly obsolete. I will present evidence for that argument in a next piece.