On the global scale, most people are now willing to accept the idea that we are currently on an unsustainable course, and need to change direction in order to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change, species extinction, and loss of the regenerative capacity of the Earth.
At the individual level, however, it’s not clear what each of us can or should do about it. Here’s one important idea: let’s reclaim our power to create money.
One thing that we can do to expand our individual capacity to make a difference is to join together to work for the common good. This sounds right, and a lot of people might agree with it. But exactly how? Well, here’s one way: we can take back control over the creation and use of money in our dealings with each other, and join together in a cooperative system to manage that money.
You then need a way to spend those credits; but simply by doing the conversion you’ve created new money. Your dollars, the ones you converted to credits, actually go into a community-owned-and-managed reserve fund, so that the credits can always be converted back into dollars if needed. And it’s actually this one-to-one convertibility that guarantees the value of the credits so that you don’t necessarily have to convert them back.
For a service establishment such as a restaurant, or indeed the provision of just about any good or service, the Common Good™ Credit system effectively works as a loyalty card, and gives the provider a marketing advantage. People like using their Common Good cards, and having them be accepted, especially knowing that the money they’ve converted into credits and paid into the network remains an intact pool that actually belongs to the community. And it’s the proper use of this money that allows the community to leverage the pool in order to extend additional loans, in the form of credits, to its members.
Once this starts to happen, when the community has grown in numbers and in pooled dollars and credits, and established a consistent level of economic activity, local economic development will increase, and the system will provide a greater range of economic benefits to the community.
If you’d like to find out more, you can visit the Common Good™ web site, CommonGood.earth, and then contact us using the form below for an invitation, because membership is “by invitation only.” This builds trust, understanding, and collaboration, along with a pooled fund that the group itself manages for the common good.
In addition, Possible Planet accepts donations in credits, and issues tax receipts for these in U.S. dollars. A portion of any donation you make when you sign up will go to us, and in addition we’ll accept credits as donations, and agree not to convert them into conventional currency for as long as the system continues in operation.