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LOCAL CURRENCY:

Building Community ...While Making a Living

by Chris McCormick

What if we had a money system that builds community and sustains personal and ecological relationships? Ukiah Hours, the up-and-coming local currency for inland Mendocino County, will address that question.

Community currency offers a vision of local sustainability. It introduces an economic strategy that encourages community solidarity and interconnectedness. It promotes local small businesses, cooperatives and farms. We need to have wealth represented differently from what we were raised to believe it to be. Wealth is found not in quantity of dollars but in quality of exchange, qualities that an entire community can relate to: a community revolves around people's trust and respect for individual values; a system of exchange that honors people for their character, wisdom, and gifts to society. This type of wealth is abundant in any community.

Federal dollars leave town

Local monetary systems are a supplement to federal monetary systems. These community-supported exchanges help alleviate the common symptom of federal dollars leaving town to go into the pockets of big business or multi-national corporations. Community currency helps address the struggle that local businesses encounter when large super stores move in. It helps with the lower wages that this situation often creates. A study done by the Institute for Local Self Reliance notes that for every dollar McDonald's takes in, 85 cents leaves the area! We can support local business by moving resources from the private to the public domain. Ithaca Hours, a model system in New York, has brought 1.5 million local dollars back into their region between 1994 and 1998!

Why are people turning to alternative currency?

Community currency helps revolutionize a global economy based on the few grasping for a quantity of wealth. The basis for many of these alternative monetary systems is the fact that many people are not receiving enough from the government; they are not getting their needs met. Most people and most communities are suffering because of their dependence on things beyond their control, including global markets, federal interest rates and stock market fluctuations. Local transactions help us understand how our basic needs are met. Local currency encourages a decentralized form of monetary exchange. All community members participate in monthly potlucks to make decisions and policy.

The economy is booming?

The President's 1999 State of the Union address assures us that the economy of the United States is supposedly booming! The indicators of this alleged monetary boom are: the record-setting highs of the stock market, the fact that we are richer than ever before in history, that for the first time in history we are not showing a deficit but are overflowing with extra money to spend.

But wait a minute! How come everyone I know is poorer than ever before, holding not just one job but two or three? The local unemployment rate is skyrocketing. How come I read statistics that report there are 358 people whose net worth equals the combined income of 2.5 billion people? That is 45% of the planet's population! Welfare and education systems nationwide are crashing due to lack of funding. Protection of the environment isn't happening because there isn't any money to employ conservationists or regulators.

What is "Ukiah Hours" worth?

In a local monetary system, the first source of wealth is mutual recognition of the diversity of skills and resources in the region. The second type of wealth is face value of the local currency, often referred to as "Hours". Local currency is a legal medium of exchange that facilitates a community barter system. The currency operates in denominations of hours of time: one Hour may be equivalent to $10, a half-hour of time equivalent to $5, and so on. The $10 Ukiah Hour represents an average, living wage for this region.

Ukiah Hours will be valuable for seeking local skills and resources such as plumbing, auto repair, massage, bike repair, catering, animal care, etc....

How to get involved in Ukiah Hours

If you live in or do business in Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Hopland or Anderson Valley, we encourage you to sign up (use the enclosed form or sign up on-line at: ). Signing up will give you two listings in the directory, Hour Town-Ukiah and four 1-Hour bills, worth $10 each. For your listing, try to dream and create a skill that you've always wanted to try as a second job or hobby. Thinking beyond a typical job resume can be refreshing and enjoyable for all involved!

Once we have 100 sign-ups, we will print the first directory and issue everyone their currency. This launching is going to take place in mid-June at a potluck party and barter fair!

We hope to create a world dependent on the interconnection of all living beings. Let's begin to bring people out of isolation and alienation into a world full of cooperation, both local and global. To quote David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, "To heal society we must heal the money system. This will involve a two-step process of reducing money's importance and restoring its appropriate role in service to the creation of real wealth."

P.S. We are looking for help in this project, especially the newsletter and ad sales.

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