Posted on 02/05/2013 6:39:25 PM PST by Lorianne
It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.
But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.
"It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."
In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network.
For users such as Ioanitou, the currency – a form of community banking monitored exclusively online – is not only an effective antidote to wage cuts and soaring taxes but the "best kind of shopping therapy". "One Tem is the equivalent of one euro. My oil and soap came to 70 Tem and with that I bought oranges, pies, napkins, cleaning products and Christmas decorations," said the mother-of-five. "I've got 30 Tem left over.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The best way to get out of this crisis,would be Greeks trading money or at least giving away part of their income to help others or for various services.
Instead you end up with a population that is broke and another segment that is gong broke,an actual system where money would change hands and be invested or go to some kind of personal charity.....that would work.
The whole point would be to create a system,where a wider group of people could earn cash off the books.Bartering is nice but as someone pointed out,it doesn’t take care of shelter or utility bills.
One of the more useful aspects of bartering is that it free's up cash to take care of shelter, utility and other bills that cannot be bartered for.
“Looks like they are using an alternative unit of measure for currency, and pure bartering doesn’t come into the picture. I’m thinking you threw up a straw man.”
The headline calls it bartering, but once there’s a common medium of exchange, it’s not. I’m just commenting on the headline.
When the SHTF, I will purchase a large quantity of beans and rice.
I will have my employees make 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 5 lb. bags.
The new Currency of the People!
Warning! Warning! Weimar Republic territory. Is the Euro really this useless?
You did take a dig at folks on FR that do real barter. I've been known to participate myself.
/johnny
When the SHTF, you won't be purchasing anything. Pray it never comes to that, personally, or on a larger scope.
/johnny
That’s fair...I did take a dig, forgot. I agree that we can all probably barter to some extent...but not nearly enough to live on if no currency was around. For example, I can probably fix someone’s air conditioner for something that’s useful to me...but finding people with broken air conditioners is not always easy.
That’s all I was getting at - there will always be currency, even where people try to ignore the state currency.
They smell bad and have red faces. ;)
I think retail cash transactions for me in 2009 amounted to less than $200. Most of that was for coffee and tobacco. And I grow my own tobacco today.
It's amazing what you can do when motivated.
Yep, no mortgage, no bills, it's a good place to be.
You do have to pony up land taxes once a year to the local shakedown/protection racket, and they don't take eggs.
/johnny
Here in NJ the underground economy is thriving; those that have jobs go to work every day leaving their children at an unlicensed daycare (in “new normal” terms this simply means the apartment of an unemployed female) while they earn their untaxed dollars, and on weekends you see them spending those dollars at flea markets buying tools from unemployed Americans so they can do the jobs Americans used to do. For all the talk about illegals on welfare/food stamps, they are the only ones I see spending (untaxed) cash at Wal-Mart...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.