Because a lack of money is most people’s definition of poverty, it is usually not recognized as a cause of poverty, much less the greatest cause, but consider this example: In many places, people are desperate for water, even while water flows in the ground beneath their feet, and if they had money then they could afford to dig a well. Now, suppose we dig that well (perhaps it costs $10,000) and consequently the people there have easy access to water and no longer must dedicate so much time and resources (such as firewood to boil hauled water) to obtaining this most vital commodity. But they still have no money beyond a dollar or two earnings they manage a day, and so they slowly starve, prisoners of their poverty. A solution is to dig the well, but instead of giving the water away, pay people to pump it with a note that they can use to buy the water at a discount. Those notes would immediately become a treasured local scrip – a kind of money that can’t go away because it has no value anywhere else – permitting labor to be employed and agricultural micro-loans to be financed, and a marketplace is launched that can deliver water and food to those whom need these most. That marketplace would have a money that stays in the community, and so poverty ends, because people would have money to access essential commodities.
In most places, communities can create local money. It’s generally as simple as an IOU *. But we see relatively few local money systems because money needs a stable value in able to create a demand for that currency. The SunMoney strategy provides that stable value by discounting an essential commodity when purchased with the scrip. Many undeveloped communities can create a valued local currency with a discount on water, while developing communities might accomplish that value by discounting taxes, and even the most developed communities can gain from this strategy by discounting energy because that creates a local energy marketplace in which everyone can have a stake. Learn more at http://sunmoney.org
SunMoney is about delivering food, water, energy, and other vital commodities and services to those who need them most through creating local marketplaces that trade using powerful local currencies.
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