Change begins in the mind – and the heart

While setting up a regional currency may sound fairly simple, it is not all that easy. Perhaps the baker’s apprentice needs some euros as well because he wants to shop at one of the large discount grocery stores. The sales person at the butcher’s shop insists on using euros because she prefers the inexpensive bread from the large chain stores. Convincing people that spending a bit more is sometimes the best way to go can be very challenging.

Change begins in the mind, in people’s attitudes. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, a central tenet of Kant’s moral philosophy, is the basic principle. If I sell meat at the local butcher’s and want a living wage, the prices for the products I sell have to be fair. In turn I have to be willing to pay a fair price for the bread made at the bakery down the street. And if I want the baker’s apprentice to stock his fridge at my shop, I need to frequent his bakery. 

The heart is just as important as the mind in this transformation. People have to decide what is most important, what sort of working environment they value most. Whether they want to join 500 other employees making the daily 80 kilometer trek to the nearest baking factory, or whether they want to work with 10 or so others at the local bakery right next door. Products are important too, and our quality expectations. How should the bread we eat taste and smell? Are we willing to settle for bread made using the latest genetically modified “super” flour from the USA? Or do we want to pay a bit more for local flour, grown and ground by local farmers? 

“People have to decide whether they want to join 500 other employees making the daily 80 kilometer trek to the nearest baking factory, or whether they want to work with 10 or so others at the local bakery right next door.”

A regional currency gives consumers the power to shape both the present and the future of the private sector. By paying with chiemgauer at the bakery, I ask the baker to source his materials as close to home as possible, because this is where he can spend the money he earned from me. I encourage my local grocer to sell local, seasonal foods, because she would otherwise need to pay exchange fees to get euros. This creates new supplier chains between local retailers and small producers. The apple juice on the shelves was pressed just 30 kilometers outside of town instead of 600 kilometers away. The cheese counter suddenly features 30 regional cheeses because the local cheese dairy accepts the regional currency. 

For years now experts have pointed to the chiemgauer as an example of how to boost the business cycle. The circulation velocity of the chiemgauer is three times that of the euro. What kind of impact could this have in countries like Ukraine and Greece? If there were political will to actively promote and support regional currencies, economies that have bottomed out could quickly regain lost ground. Regions in crisis have therefore invited the chiemgauer experts to come and share their experience. For instance, the Taxpayers Association of Ukraine and the German consul general in Greece have invited them. 

Currencies of the future 

The German-speaking world has seen other examples in the past – such as the Wörgl in Austria in times of the Great Depression – and there are some ongoing regional currency projects in Kenya and Brazil that show how effectively this instrument can be employed. In Sardinia a regional currency was established fairly quickly and has achieved 50 million euros in turnover, for example. 

Turnover in the billions is even possible for alternative currencies, as the WIR Bank in Switzerland with its network of over 30,000 companies has shown. The “WIR franks” it issues have since been included in the international list of currencies under the abbreviation CHW. 

The chiemgauer has been honored in a different way: In London the British Museum exhibits the chiemgauer next to the euro. And understanding is slowly growing that a multiplicity of currencies can help people learn how to develop monetary systems that better serve our needs. The currencies of the future will be designed to ensure that exchange is fair and that the few cannot take over and exclusively control a single currency. 

At the end of the day the real question is: Which currency is contributing the most to building peace in the world?

The positive effects of this system of mutual support become obvious when an entrepreneur who was not approved for a loan at a bank in Chiemgau received a micro-credit from the regional currency association because it trusts her to recoup the loan amount via income from the local network. 

And while a mother in Nairobi who can earn a living thanks to Gatina pesas, income she uses to send her children to school, paying teacher who also spends her salary in the regional currency at the owner-operated businesses in the area, might be less relevant in overall economic terms than a consignment of 100,000 weapons sent to Kenya – at the end of the day the real question is: Which currency is contributing the most to building peace in the world?