With the exception of not being able to afford fuel cells and having to settle for more conventional A.E this could be describing my community. From The Dropout Economy by Reihan Salam, one of "Ten Ideas for the Next Ten Years" on the cover of the current edition of Time magazine.
Interesting. I have been following similar ideas based upon internet culture. Love it or hate it, places like Facebook/My space, /b/, twitter, ect. are breeding grounds for cultural revolution. Granted 95% of what emerges is crap, but that tiny percentage can make huge changes.
Yea, most are socialist commune ideas that didn't work the first time back in the '70's. Ours is an AnCap community that is based on real property rights and voluntary exchange.
I agree, communes are a fantasy. The problem, much like the real world, is what to do with people who do not contribute. Wouldn't it be nice if the powers that be would seed a tiny bit of land to those of us who do not want to play by their rules. Hell, it could be crap land (no mineral wealth) so long as it is farmable and has clean water.
We still use Federal Reserve Notes most of which are earned outside of The Gulch. The long term goal is to eventually get enough production in The Gulch that we can switch to a silver/gold based currency. We will start with pre-1964 US "junk" silver coins.
So, if I get it right, you want to have enough production within your community, so that you can make a change from contemporary paper money, to money with some actual value due to it's metal (gold, silver). I read around and that sort of money is considered an investment and a safe haven. Very ambitious though. You'll still have to deal with the taxes, etc. Plus to get that kind of money seems... expensive. I also had to look up what the Gulch is. Beautiful! At least the site I saw...
The goal is to have a enough people with different skills to keep business within the gulch. As for the "junk" silver; one neighbor bought his property with a box of .9999 silver trade units, I had to pay a half dollar silver (five dimes)when I lost a bet, I won a silver dollar on a bet and I've purchased products and services with silver from Gulch members before. We don't have a VAT in this country and this state doesn't have sales tax so the taxes aren't really an issue at this point. Most of us already have silver/gold. We saw the real estate collapse coming and hedged with precious metals. In this country anybody can purchase the pre-'64 silver coins at coin/collector shops. Sometimes there is a small "premium" above "spot" but I only once paid one (Maple leaves are so pretty I didn't mind the extra ten bucks) My blog of my efforts in the gulch (among other things) is listed somewhere in my profile if you want to see what our Gulch looks like. Edit to add: Buying the silver/gold is an expensive up front cost, however it is inflation proof. One silver dollar (with no collector value) is worth $16.58 right now. That same dollar was worth $1 less than fifty years ago, that's a good example of inflation.
Have you read about the 'Liberty Dollar' debacle? I'd keep in in mind when supplanting the ole green back.
Oh yea, I've heard all about that. We won't be "coining money" we will be using USA legal tender albeit old. We also won't be encouraging its use outside of our community.
Actually I know what you mean. It's the same here with the old, gold british pound. We all have several from our family, and when you get married you get them. And you hold on to them, just in case. Nobody uses them in shops or anthing, but you can exchange them in a bank, or have a private deal with another person. The thing is, if you go to a bank you have to prove somehow how you got it, a tough thing to do as most people have them from their great-great-great grandfathers... Mine are mostly king George, but I have a couple queen Victoria ones. My mother in law gave us some as well, and she also gave me a q. Victoria pound set as a pendant, to wear with a chain. I never do but it's pretty cool, as you see such things in a museum. I'll never try to exchange them, nor do I know exactly how gold they contain, but they are nice to have... Anyway, your plan seems good, because people here also prefer gold to anything else as an investment. I get it. I am also pretty familiar with inflation (unfortunately). The change from drachmas to euro was... shocking... to say the least. The lack of all those taxes is interesting- no such luck here!
