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

Currently, Australia has the highest ratio of complementary
currency systems per capita. Although the government has not been
as actively involved as in New Zealand in supporting LETS systems,
the latest estimate is that there are over 200 systems operational
today. In 1991 there were 45 systems in Australia, and only three
years later four times that amount. One of the best known is the Blue
Mountains LETS near Sydney, with well over 1,000 members.
Among the reasons for this blossoming is that, after evaluating the
results in the field, provincial governments, such as the one of
Western Australia, help launch new LETS systems. The Australian
Social Security Office has formally endorsed this approach since 1993.
We could cover every Northern European country: Scandinavia,
Germany, the Low Countries, and make an inventory of what is
happening in each.
Instead we will take the story of two more countries, France,
because it illustrates the explosive nature of the multiplication
process of complementary currencies when the unemployment
conditions are serious enough, and Switzerland. As the French
unemployment level shot up in the early 1990s, Claude Freysonnet,
an organic farming specialist from Ariege, decided to take an
initiative. In 1993, she heard about complementary currencies from
Phillip Forrer, a Dutch friend. And presto, here comes le Grain de Sel
(literally the 'grain of salt', which in French, as in English, has the
double meaning of something not taken quite seriously). SEL is also
the acronym for Systeme dEchonge Local (Local Exchange System).
Today, Claude sells her production of organic cheeses to the 300
participants of her Grain de Sel network in Ariege. She has spent her
own Grain de Sel income on fruit trees for her garden, bicycles for her
children, even the car she drives. Another participant in her network,
Eric, unemployed, lives in a house which he rents in exchange for