In Detroit, a few Cheers will get you a beer. In Pittsboro, N.C., Plenties are accepted as payment in the food co-op and at Piggly Wiggly. And in western Massachusetts, BerkShares are as good as greenbacks in local businesses. These and other local currencies, created by grassroots groups and given names like the Cheer or the Mesa Buck, now work as stand-ins for the U.S. dollar.
Why not just use plain greenbacks? An explanation from one North Carolinian, via the LA Times:
“The Plenty is not going to get siphoned off to Wall Street, or Washington, or make a stop in Bentonville on its way to China,” said B.J. Lawson, a software entrepreneur who is president of the board of the Plenty cooperative. “It gives us self-reliance.”
An academic chimes in with his two cents (I’m not sure what currency, but two cents nonetheless):
“Right now there’s a lot of interest because of the economy, but a lot of these efforts come about to rebuild social capital,” said Ed Collom, a sociology professor at the University of Southern Maine who studies local currencies. “There’s been concern about lack of trust, neighbors not knowing each other. They see this as a way of neighbors helping each other.”
These bills can’t be used outside their local communities, and that’s the point. An interesting trend, and perhaps one that will grow in today’s uneasy economic climate. And here’s a great touch: Printed on the Pittsboro Plenty are the words “In Each Other We Trust.”