THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

process of community decay is also the highest in the more
'developed' countries.
As Hazel Henderson puts it: 'If you want to have breakfast
prepared by Mom, go to McDonald's where she is serving it.' In a
society where you need to pay your son to cut the grass, the nuclear
family breakdown is on its way. And when you decide to put
Grandpa in a nursing home, not only is the extended family gone,
but you will also have to pay for the day care centre.
In a recent survey of the priorities of the American population, the
desire to 'rebuild neighbourhoods and communities' received the
highest ranking for an astounding 86% of the population. This is one
priority that everybody seems to agree on.
But how can community be rebuilt in today's world?
Currencies that build community
We just learned the apparently general rule that whenever money
gets involved, community breaks down. However, this turns out to
be true only when scarce, competition-inducing currencies, such as
our official national currencies are involved. In fact, the use of some
other types of currencies can have exactly the opposite effect of
building community.
None of this is theory. We are dealing with real-life experiments,
which have been going on in a wide variety of countries, in some
cases for decades. Theory is way behind practice in this held (see
sidebar).
There are indeed currencies, which have reciprocity, built in, which
are more compatible with a gift economy than our national