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Social Purpose Currencies
The bulk of the social purpose currencies are highly focused on specific problems or social classes, ranging from elderly care to unemployment or educational currencies. Here are some examples.
Elderly Care: The very first post WW2 complementary currencies systems were conceived in 1950 by and for women in Japan1 for the care of elderly, children and handicapped persons. They also created the first “Volunteer Labor Bank” in 1978, a prototype that was later reinvented in the West as Time Banks in the US and the UK in particular. In Japan, the Fureai Kippu system is today the direct descendant of those earlier pioneering systems.
Retirees: Some of the first Time Dollar applications in the US were implemented by Edgar Cahn in retirement homes and encouraged self-help activities among retirees. It also resulted in creating a stronger community feeling.
Unemployed: The first LETS systems originated in Canada in 1982 aimed pecifically at addressing the problem of currency scarcity in areas with high unemployment. Still today, a majority of LETS tend to be more widespread in high unemployment areas.
Educational: The MUSE system (Mutual Unit for Sustainable Education) is a complementary currency designed for stimulating learning and teaching by youngsters among each other.2 The Sonoma County, California, Community Service Dollar (C$D) is being developed under the guidance of the nonprofit Skaggs Island Foundation. Both state university and city officials are exploring the possible value of the system for partial payment for educational and other public services and, in the latter case, for taxes and fees.
Child Care (Babysitting): There is a long tradition of more or less formal but small scale local babysitting groups constituted by families who in turn take care of each other’s children. A large national-scale Internet-based system is being designed now in Holland, under the name of “Care Miles” to help the 2.3 million families who have trouble finding access to the care centers, particularly for the 0-4 year olds.3
1 The first post-war complementary currency pioneer in chronological order was Teruko Mizushima, who was born in 1920 in Osaka. She wrote in 1950 a visionary article about a “Labor Bank”, a paper that was honored at that time with the Newspaper Companies’ Prize.
2 See Lietaer, Bernard Die Welt des Geldes: das Aufklärungsbuch (Würzburg: Arenaerlag, 2002).
3 The organization involved is called Regeltante: see www.regeltante.nl
