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New economic make up

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Shane Hughes
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Joined: 23 Dec 2009

 

As part of the REconomy project we've been looking at the understanding what a new Transition-ed economy might look like. It's got me thinking; going forward money as we know it will be used a lot less (assumed by me as a given)  – a massive part of the economy will be replaced and i wanted to get a feel for what people thought the new economic breakdown might look like and if there are any interesting / leading thinkers on this subject.

 

Here's a kind of crude breakdown, figures that i've just picked out of the air, that will hopefully kick start some thoughts;

 

Current economy (100%)

Pure reduction in economic consumption (-30%)

Sharing, which leads to further reduced consumption (-20%) (some of which is localised sharing of physical stuff and some of which is knowledge sharing unbound by locality)

Therefore reducing all consumption & economic activity by 50% at which point we reach an overall steady state economy with different elements of the economy either growing or receeding. Notably this doesn't include the reduction in value of stuff, which i'm ignoring here.

Of the remaining 50% economic activity it will consist of

Local exchange (15%) i.e. non-monetary

Broadly termed as monetary economics (35%) of which some is

Local currencies with little of no national value (20%)

National/internationally accepted currencies (15%)

or perhaps all local currencies but with ways of feeding into the wider network of currencies?

 

Thoughts welcome

Shane

Shane Hughes
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Hi, i thought i'd post something to try to ingite this discussion. This is one of the response i got sent direct;

 

"Shane, This startled me in the way that a common sense presentation of what you already know can sometimes. It has a breathtaking clarity to it. I have no idea at all whether it has accuracy going for it as well but putting it down like this is brilliant! the direction of travel is clear. Really really really helpful."

 

would be good to get your thoughts!!

Martin Grimshaw
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 Hi Shane

Just wanted to say thanks for kicking this off. I think you'll probably end up being more or less right, the figures quoted are as good as any as a ball park starting point.

Look forward to coming back to this conversation a bit further down the line; suffice to say for now that I reckon there is currently a lot of places and people that money can't reach, and a lot of work that needs to be done, and people who want to do it, but there is a serious lack of currency flow between them to facilitate it.... therefore many are stagnant, in crisis, or crucial work to build sustainable communities does not get done. Focussing on the WD40 to get those wheels turning necessary, and complimentary currencies, I think, have an important part to play. 

Warm regards & keep up the good work

Shane Hughes
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Joined: 23 Dec 2009

thanks Martin for the support! Perhaps take a look at the REconomy twitter and facebook pages and help build the discussion. Cheers, Shane