Linked with Dominique Plihon – France, and with the Canterbury Community Dollar CCD.
The Community Exchange System CES is an initiative of the South African New Economics Network SANE (see address below).
Caught in the money trap? Break free by joining the Community Exchange System: Conventional money is created as debt by private financial institutions for their own profit-making purposes, not as a social service. This is the root cause of the economic, social and environmental problems that beset us. The amount of debt determines the quantity of money, which has nothing to do with the amount of money we need to live decent lives. CES ‘money’ is created by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community goods and services of like value. Join the growing community who have discovered a new way of ‘doing’ money, a healthy money that will create a healthy society, (CES Homepage).
The SANE Community Exchange System (CES) is a community-based, global trading network using a money other than our familiar national ones — an alternative, parallel, local, community or complementary currency system. In short, the CES is a new money system … (what is the CES /about 1/2).
How CES works;
an example of a trade;
WHY WE NEED A NEW MONEY;
The Problems with Conventional Money;
History;
Questions and Answers;
Articles on Money & Complementary Currencies;
NPO Registration; 012-739NPO
Trust Registration; No. IT2904/99
Address: SANE Network, PO Box 23760, 7735 Claremont, South Africa, Tel: +27 (0)21 762 5933, Email.
About 2/2 – How does the SANE Community Exchange System work: There are many similar trading systems around the world, commonly know as Community Exchange Systems, Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS), Mutual Credit trading systems or Time Banks.
The main difference between these and conventional money systems is that the scope of the money is usually restricted to a geographical area or organisation. Money in the above types of complementary currencies does not ‘exist’ like conventional money so there is no need for a supply of it and you don’t need any to start trading.
Money in these systems is a retrospective ‘score-keeping’ that keeps a record of who did what for whom and who sold what to whom. There can therefore never be a shortage of money and money does not have to be created by a third party (banks or government) outside the circuit of buyers and sellers. For this reason money and credit are free, for the buyers and sellers ‘create’ it at the moment of trade.
There are many different types of complementary currency systems (CCs) and they are growing in popularity throughout the world. Some use ‘hard’ currencies, where notes and coins are issued by the group for their own use; others use time as a currency rather than notes; and yet others use a ‘virtual’ currency which is the recording of the values of goods and services exchanged.
Complementary currencies foster the real wealth of communities and rebuild a sense of worth and self-esteem among the users. Around the world they report an increased sense of vitality in all sectors of the communities using them. While these trading systems might have a slightly different function for each of these sectors, it certainly has relevance to all.
From child care to karate lessons to phone companionship, to computer programming and gardening, there’s no limit to the ways of earning money in these systems. In this way a community currency acts like a supplementary currency, creating an additional stream of value in a community. By supplementing conventional cash flow with a local currency, a community can maintain full employment and protect itself from changes and fluctuations in the national money supply.
I help you, and you help another—and someone else helps me. The recipients of help become, in turn, the providers of help. What goes around comes around. The currency you earn by helping others can be
used to receive services or help from someone else and buy goods on offer. When you spend your community currency, someone else earns it … (full long text).