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by Paul
Glover
December 1991
We and our children have good food, secure
housing, proper medical
care, education and clothing when we have enough money.
Sometimes, despite hard work, we don't have a fair
chance to earn the dollars we need. This happens when the
people who control money move factories away, or refuse loans for house
repairs and new busiensses, or pay low wages, or raise taxes and prices
too fast. When these things happen, average people
can lose
jobs, health, homes and hope.
In many American communities, however, average people are taking action
to make sure they get creative jobs, healthy environments and enough
money. They do this by starting local lindustries, trhough
community development corporations, to make jobs and necessary
products. They do this by spending their money with smaller
locally-owned businesses, by keeping wealth local to enrich themselves,
and by avoiding environmentally bad products. They do this by
banking their money in democratically-owned credit unions.
They do this by reducing waste of fuel. And they do this by
joining a barter list, and using local money.
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Anybody
who can wake up in the morning has something to offer others.
From artwork to yardwork, the growing list inside shows that if you
have a little time you can earn spending power. You could
start a business on needs like those displayed inside. This
month's Barter List introduces 150 local people willing to swap for
goods and services. Together they provide over 500 job
opportunities: they offer and request work that could become regular
income for themselves or for you.
When the number of swappers reachs its first 1,000 we will be a notable
part of the local economy. Well have the capacity to combine
talents, to start larger export
enterprises. That's what this paper is
about: promoting a grassroots locally-controlled economy-- one that
produces goods here, exports more and imports less.
Nobody who lives in the Ithaca area needs to wait for a beter job, or
wait for any job. Rather than hope that new factories open,
rather than study the help-wanted ads, rather than expect that interst
rates stay down, Ithacans can hire each other.
You're welcome to join the list, by mailing the form on page
7. The special feature of our barter network is that we use
Ithaca HOURS, the labor credit note shown below. When you
sign up to offer your goods or services in part or full payment with
HOURS, you get paid four HOURS for doing so. Look at the list
to see how you can spend them.
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