LETS Work Together

But when we spend locally, or invest in people, in each other�s skills and potential, rather than abstract concepts like �Stocks & Bonds� or �Futures Markets�, we can have more control over where our energy is used and what we are supporting. �Money� can become a tool of empowerment and liberation rather than oppression... The same pound spent with a local person making goods or providing services using local materials largely stays WITHIN the community to be continually reinvested to produce wealth for all. We can trade with each other on a face to face level and recreate local prosperity... Credit Unions are one way of keeping money local, particularly in impoverished communities, and at the same time help to avoid the often crippling interest rates charged by banks or moneylenders. Participants are able to invest in self-managed �neighbourhood banks� which then make funds available for development projects and mutual benefit.Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) take community scale economics a step further by eliminating the need for �cash� at all; instead members create their own local currency to enable the trading of skills, services and goods. A LETS group will periodically publish a directory in which members� �offers� and �wants� are listed. Members then contact each other to trade, earning credit for services provided, which can then be �spent� elsewhere within the system. LETS also promotes social contact and networking, and has been used to create a sustainable bedrock for several small locally based business ventures, who often use such complementary currencies and trading in parallel with Stirling.

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