By Tom Braford
As we contemplate the reopening of our economy, let’s consider what kind of economy we are reopening and what else is possible.
Is it going to be the same old economy on steroids, where a small business is considered any company with fewer than five hundred employees? Will it be one where most people still work directly or indirectly for multinational corporations? Will it include an expanded gig economy and informal, cash only, under the radar economy, where benefits are few and far between and the risk to participants and the rest of us are huge?
Or is this perhaps an opportunity to launch a truly local, yet internationally linked, economy, based on bootstraps and a basket of real goods and services, rather than government bailouts, one that is based more on resilience than resentments, as prices inevitably skyrocket and hyperinflation sets in?
At Arizmendi Ecovillage, we are committed to creating a model, globally linked people-to-people, planet friendly, parallel protected economy. Elements of this have been around for decades and have helped large groups of people survive disasters worse than Covid-19.
We plan to include both Mondragon worker-owned co-ops and local and regional currencies. The current crisis is giving us a real-world example of how in the digital age we can effectively bridge whatever barriers governments and corporations construct and quickly find our way in order to be connected locally and internationally.
To do this more effectively, ICB is forming a collaboration with a like-minded European eco-development group, Pleasant Quantum Rise (PQR). This will include establishing a currency that will give local community members, investors and buyers access to capital in our local fiat currency dollars, pounds sterling and Euros, but also Ecovillage ingots, our local version of a shared village-to-village redeemable currency based on a basket of goods and services at participating ecovillages and ICB and PQR affiliates worldwide.
We invite you to join us in being intrepid pioneers of the eco-frontier, like our hero Sim Van der Ryn. Contact us for details on our next virtual events.
Contact:
braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com