THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

1933 (Figure 5.1). This graph also serves to illustrate one of the key
steps in the 'vicious circle of unemployment' - the feeding of political
extremism.
Between 1924 and 1928, unemployment in Germany fell gradually
from 340,711 to 268,443. The percentage of seats obtained during the
elections by the National-Socialist party declined in parallel from
6.6% to 2.6%. In contrast, from 1930 to 1933, as unemployment shot
up first to 1,061,570 and then to 5,598,855, the percentage of seats
obtained by the National- Socialist Party climbed first to 18.59/0, then
to 43.7%, to culminate with 92.1% by the end of that last year.
Worgl stamp scrip
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
One of the best-known applications of the stamp scrip idea was
applied in the small town of Worgl, Austria, with a population of
about 4,500 people at the time. When Michael Unterguggenberger
(1884-1936) was elected mayor of Worgl, the city had 500 jobless
people and another 1,000 in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, 200
families were absolutely penniless. The mayor-with-the-long-name
(as Professor Irving Fisher from Yale would call him) was also
familiar with Silvio Gesell's work and decided to put it to the test.
He had a long list of projects he wanted to accomplish (re-paving
the streets, making the water distribution system available for the
entire town, planting trees along the streets and other needed
repairs). Many people were willing and able to do all of those things,
but he had only 40,000 Austrian schillings in the bank, a pittance
compared to what needed to be done.
Instead of spending the 40,000 schillings on starting the first of his
long list of projects, he decided to put the money on deposit with a