Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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her children who were fed by its purchase? Have we walked the forest which was the source
of its wood? 6
Regional Money Leads to Regional Development
For many years, central governments in numerous countries across the world have
promised to strengthen local economies. However, instead of starting with locally
created currency, discussions have centred on how to attract national investment to
the district and how best to assist sunrise industries. Conventional efforts to
develop local economies typically focus on acquiring more tourism, but if each
district goes for this option they simply end up competing with each other and
bidding down the prices.
British economist John Maynard Keynes was an advocate of localisation where
possible. He said, ‘I sympathize, therefore, with those who would minimize,
rather than with those who would maximize, economic entanglement among
nations. Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which
should of their nature be international. But let the goods be homespun wherever it
is reasonably and conveniently possible…’ 7 In India, Mahatma Gandhi was also an
advocate for strengthening local communities. He wanted the government to
surrender much of its power to local villages, and his programme of swadeshi
meant, in effect, local self­sufficiency. Satish Kumar, a Gandhian scholar, says:
‘‘Gandhi’s vision of a free India was not of a nation­state but a confederation of
self­governing, self­reliant, self­employed people living in village communities,
deriving their right livelihood from the products of their homesteads.’ 8