LETS : LOCAL ENERGY TRADING SYSTEM

Local Energy Trading System (LETS) ALSO KNOWN AS Local Exchange Trading System
as a way to support a “Heart Economy”

We are exploring starting such a system locally (some of us belonged to one in Frankston 25 years ago). We’d like your input on choosing the best system to suit us. This is an initiative of the Wellbeing Team.

What Is It?

What is it?
More than bartering, which does an equal value exchange between two people, LETS also allows you to only buy from, or only sell to, any number of people, including with those in other LETS groups.

This can include many everyday necessary things we do such as caring for people, animals and plants; housework; food production and preparation; food as health; wellbeing; maintenance of vehicles, bicycles, homes; art and creativity; book; business support, IT, mentoring, knowledge. Items that are upcycled, used, newly created. This list is unlimited. If you have it or can do it there is someone that wants it.

“There are many ways of exchanging what we have and can do for the things we need. ‘Money‘ is just one of them. The internet revolution has brought us new ways of exchanging things, without the unnecessary step of acquiring money first.

At CES we exchange and share what we have to offer for what others provide, using a variety of exchange methods: record keeping, time exchange, direct exchange, barter, swapping, gifting and sharing.

Simply by keeping track of who receives what from whom we can dispense with the ancient idea of exchange media and the apparatus required to create, circulate and manage them.

This helps us focus on providing and requesting what is really needed instead of chasing after money.”   (this is from https://www.community-exchange.org/home/)

There would be a directory of all the goods and services offered, and also a “wanted” list.

Why?


No one needs to be poor – we all have abilities and resources to trade.

Our current financial system, like every other, is skewed and biased in the favour of some. It is limiting and doesn’t suit all our needs. Employment options don’t suit a variety of people, including specific hours.

In this system we can all focus more on doing what we love and let others do things we don’t enjoy.

LETS keeps the currency flowing locally, it is not siphoned off to wealthy people or businesses.

LETS means that we can repay people’s energy, and those with more than they need can donate them to a community chest, which we might call  “Community Hearts” .

In LETS there is a small fee paid by each trader in the LETS currency which pays for the time of the admin and other staff. This means we don’t have to rely on usually overtaxed volunteers, everyone is compensated, so the system itself is sustainable and resilient.

There is currently a LETS system (group) in Australia specifically to assist jab injured people called LETS GROW FREE. More info on this below.

Right now this is just an idea, and we’d like to kick it around with you and see if it appeals. If so we’d like to tailor it to our specific local character and needs. So please talk to us.

Further information:


Here are a few videos describing LETS
See how LETS works https://www.facebook.com/1482535687/posts/10214150461543838/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_SeffUDeG8

LETS in WA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-O2iGwLWAw

LETS quick overview (you can ignore flowchart as we don’t understand it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNBjI2guq-8

LETS trading day koah community hall 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avtu46ug5XY

 There is a variation called Time Banking https://timebanking.com.au/
Software System we could use https://www.communityexchange.net.au/home/


Here’s a small excerpt below from this article https://www.community-exchange.org/home/towards-perma-circular-currencies-why-a-regenerative-economy-calls-for-new-forms-of-money/

“Money per se is merely a tool or a set of tools designed to serve the functions of medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. There are many forms of money. There’s nothing about money per se that necessitates growth. True enough, the credit/ debt form of money our system currently relies on is an extremely powerful one – especially when entrusted to a group of commercial banks that stand to profit from its creation. However, the idea that all money must be issued in the form of interest-bearing debt arises out of a twofold misconception: that money is scarce and – somewhat akin to gold – is valuable in and of itself. While the large-scale balances of trade between countries will rarely be absolutely equitable, there are other forms of non-interest-bearing money that can provide incentives which will drive the balances more towards equity, rather than towards an ever-renewed spiral of disparity, debt, and instability. Chief among such alternative, reformed money forms are so-called credit clearing systems. Such systems – of which time banks and Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS) are small versions – rely on peer-to-peer transactions to create exactly the amount of “mutual credit” that’s needed for exchanges to happen. In credit clearing systems there is no interest-payment duty attached to the quantity of money in circulation. The quantity of money grows and decreases in sync with people’s actual purchase needs – not with the perpetually growth-oriented credit activity of a commercial banking system. Credit clearing is compatible with perma-circularity whereas today’s prevailing debt-money logic isn’t.”

Books on this subject: Michael Rowbotham’s 1998 book The Grip of Death: A Study of Modern Money, Debt Slavery, and Destructive Economics, or the 2012 book by Bernard Lietaer, Christian Arnsperger, Sally Goerner and Stefan Brunnhuber, Money and Sustainability: The Missing Link.

LETS GROW FREE functions as a support network for those who are vaccine injured or who have lost their employment and quality of life due to mandates. It is specifically for those who have experienced grief and the toughest of times throughout 2021-22. LETS GROW FREE provides a platform where these people and their families can make their needs known to the community and the community can respond by providing goods and services without dollars needed. LETS GROW FREE aims to have sub groups and local coordinators for each town or region.


Learn more on our public telegram channel https://t.me/GROW_FREE or

ask to join our private facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/601265441367825 
Our website is coming www.letsgrowfree.org