To recover from the blows dealt us all by the economic collapse, some communities came up with a new, creative idea. It’s new because that’s how USA Today touts it, although they do give a tip o’ the hat to the Great Depression,* when it apparently was also in vogue. They do not mention whether it actually cheered anyone up.

The brave new idea is introduction of local currency known under the hip new word “scrip.”

“Scrip” is not legal tender; it’s printed locally and can be exchanged only for local goods and services. “Workers with dwindling wages,” the USA Today article rejoices, “are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.” Presumably, the savings of about 5 cents on a dollar motivates the consumer to spend money close to home rather than — wherever it is said consumer would otherwise purchase groceries, gas, and (top priority for anyone stressed out over dwindling wages!) yoga lessons. Like… on eBay?

With this 5% discount, everybody wins — if not so much financially then at least in the warm and fuzzy department, which, as we know, is priceless. “We wanted to make new options available,” says Jackie Smith of South Bend, IN, a local-currency activist. “It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace.”

Yeah! New options and control of the economy on a grass-roots level! But much too much is being made of this feel-good community-strengthening and trust-building exercise, and not enough of where the local economies should be taken next. The trend should continue to the market exchange, where the local Monopoly currency is abandoned altogether in favor of the good old barter system.

A chicken for a bushel of apples. A home-baked pie for a yoga lesson. Six jars of homemade jelly for a pair of shoes. A dozen eggs for a gallon of gas. Three dozen squirrel pelts for a refurbished laptop.

When Pat Buchanan proposes isolating the United States from the rest of the world and global economy, at least until we get a grip on our own finances, we think he’s gone off the deep end. But when small communities, in essence, move toward self-contained economies, it’s sold as charming, grass-roots creativity and empowerment.

Since the local-currency concept is, by definition, local and cannot cross state lines, local barter trade would be even more local. As it takes off, the micro-economics will become nano-economics, until the trading communities shrink all the way back to the size of a cave clan. Because it was the whole progressive notion of crawling out of our caves and starting to trade with the clan on the other side of the logjam that ultimately led to the collapse of the centralized economy of which we are currently picking up the shards.

I have a Facebook friend, a progressive self-starter, who is willing to lead the barter trend and is offering dozens of bottles of homemade Limoncello (and many other flavors as well). The offer is available only in Philadelphia lest we wade into the murky waters of trading outside his immediate community, which will only lead to interstate commerce, which will only lead to heartache.

Philly residents, got anything to trade?

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*Historical knowledge of the USA Today editors goes no further back.

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