Doug Henwood on Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:52:40 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime> dollars & donuts


nettime's_furrin_exchange wrote, quoting Keith Hart:

>So Doug Henson is right to point out that most existing community
>currencies operate at a low level of complexity and they cannot organize a
>full-scale capitalist division of labour.

Henwood, actually. The usual error is Henning, so this is a 
refreshing departure.

I'm assuming the point isn't to reproduce a capitalist division of 
labor. But once your local currency starts circulating beyond a small 
circle of quasi-friends, then the law of value is going to start 
operating - competition based on a price system based on cost of 
inputs. How else would you exchange potato chips for computer chips? 
Have you given much thought to production? The labor market? 
Relations of authority between bosses and workers? How investment 
will be planned and financed? I've seen no evidence yet that LETS 
people have given much thought to the economic fundamentals that the 
money system embodies. It's the money illusion raised to the level of 
a political philosophy, it seems.

Doug

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