* JCT: Eleven years ago
in 1986, Jean Chretien resigned his seat in
**St. Maurice and I doubt he could have
missed Turmel promoting LETS
**on my Creditist program in the by-election
after I made the news
**being arrested for attempting to participate
in an election debate
**with his Liberal protege.
*Well, I'm glad I stand corrected! Perhaps
the growth in the number of
*systems that have cropped up since then
will help him revisit the
*concept in a more encouraging light.
JCT: More than
the growth in the number of systems is the number
of governments who have supported LETS
including Health Canada's grant
to the University of Toronto to study
the health benefits of belonging
to a LETS. Elected politicians and Parliaments
are already pro-LETS.
By the way, we were both candidates for
Prime Minister in 1993
when led his 300 Liberals and I led my
80 Abolitionists.
**JCT: Besides, we'd bumped into each other
so many times on
**Parliament Hill in my first 5 years
of weekly picketing of the Bank
**of Canada and Parliament Hill that there
is virtually no chance he
**has missed John Turmel screaming for
National LETS from every open
**political pulpit in the land.
** I hope you're
successful and if you do see Jean, make sure to
**ask: Why didn't you see the benefit
of LETS 11 years ago? Had Jean
**adopted LETS 11 years ago, the bad times
would have been avoided.
**And his maker's going to hold him responsible
for the fact that
**there were more children existing in
poverty when he was through
**than when he got started, the true indictment
of political justice.
**There aren't many political leaders
who can boast having reduced
**child poverty and those who have are
usually portrayed as "mad
**dogs" in the news.
*Well, I tend to present the topic in different
ways depending on who
*the audience is. This trip with Chretien
will involve businesspersons
*and politicians almost exclusively -
provincial Premiers are also
*going - so I plan on talking, first,
about how technology is changing
*the way entrepreneurship and self-employment
can happen, especially
*since so many programs attempt to address
community health by first
*trying to address employment and retraining
issues.
JCT: I envy you
your opportunity. You should keep a journal of
their responses. Trust me it will be of
interest to LETS historians.
Remember though that they are always coming
from the angle of ShiftA
inflation. Argentina is the only way to
prove that adding local
currency reduces federal ShiftB inflation.
One could argue
that if it is found that adding local currency
brings inflation down, then they were
suffering ShiftB inflation, not
ShiftA.
*But these programs seem to be very costly
in comparison with LETS, and
*and revolve around tired paradigms that
haven't succeeded well.
*Workers get "retrained" through employment
programs that can cost
*thousands per person to implement, and
they often end up with little
*more than basic word-processing skills.
By contrast, LETS can, and
*has, provided skills-adaptation by providing
a very low-risk (and
*low cost) opportunity to test new employment
directions within a
*social network, where startup capital
for a self-employment idea
*doesn't have to be risked in the kind
of "all-or-nothing" way demanded
*by the regular economy. This is one of
the most powerful arguments
*I've found to work in getting small business
people involved in LETS.
*Often they're making a career transition
and see right away the value
*of the pre-existing social / trading
network that a LETS group has
*already brought together.
JCT: I agree.
It's handy having models sprouting up in many
neighborhoods to point at.
*And the home-based, one-person business
now has a solid array of tools
*(fax, email, web, pager, and LETS-style
member / service / networking
*"groups of affinity") that make it much
easier to creatively pursue
*the mundane aspects of making a living,
which are necessary and timely
*given the unemployment problems that
seem so entrenched these days.
*LETS will be the example on the trip
since I'm taking the software
*down in Spanish and Portuguese versions.
JCT: I hope they
provide for the choice of Hours of currency. As
the upcoming global standard, it has to
be wise that they be prepared
for the notion of global time trading.
*But the company I represent
*(Community Software), is essentially
an adjunct of a CED think-tank
*that pursues various creative alternatives
to employment issues, of
*which LETS is just one. And Community
Software itself is an experiment
*in job-creation that is based on CED
scholarship - still obscure -
*that rests on "mapping community capacity"
rather than risk-venture
*capitalism. Showcasing that approach
to the Prime Minister is, I
*think, another subtle goal of the trip.
The "product" (software) just
*happens to cater to an innovative community-based
economics (LETS),
*while the "company" (Community Software)
just happens to exist through
*innovative venture-startup ideas. From
our end, these are not
*coincidences.
JCT: It may be
that LETS time has come.
*But as far as Chretien knows at the moment,
we're just another youth
*company with a product (there are five
such companies going, and a
*number of older, corporate-types). I
think that subtlety in altering
*the underlying paradigm - while using
familiar terms like "company"
*and "product" - is similar to the way
that LETS plays with
*connotations of money and familiar concepts
as an introduction, while
*in fact altering them in practise. I've
seen a number of LETS members
*come to the (often joyful) realization
over time, as the full
*implications of LETS dawn on them, in
terms of social cohesion and
*community and social health.
JCT: It is joyful
to see Christ's financial differential equation
in action with effects described Paul
Corr II: 8:14:
Where those who
gather much don't have too much and where those
who gather little don't have too little
and there can be equality."
I see the whole
planet singing in financial joy in under 3 years.
What an amazing turnaround. In my Rensselaer
presentation, I pointed
out the suddenness of the change for 99%
of the world who have no idea
that interest-free credit is coming by
asking a starving African
saying: "Here's an interest-free credit
card. Are you hungry?" To him,
financial security, earthly heaven, will
have arrived in that
instant.
LETS is "liberation
from our debts" software. Joyful software.
*This is the strategy I see as being
*successful in dealing with the wheels
of government also - underscore
*the familiar in terms that are familiar
(employment, local wealth-
*creation, skills retraining, cost-effectiveness),
and let the more
*radical bits, or hard-to-measure bits
(societal) seep in over time.
*Nor do I see LETS as a singular topic,
but a potentially powerful
*meeting-place for community, non-profit,
elderly, scholars, youth
*unemployed, and small business people,
with government perhaps coming
*on board, as they tend to do, once the
people lead and government sees
*it's become politically safe to endorse.
Hence the need for the "nuts-
*and-bolts" of building the systems, one
by one - perhaps the reason
*for discussion on starting a purely practise-oriented
list.
JCT: There are
too many hungry children to be going one by one
when these guys have to power to deliver
financial lifeboats to their
constituent databases the very next day
using existing banking system
hardware. Banks need only be instructed
to offer LETS accounts and the
nuts and bolts are solved.
Though I approve
of the nuts and bolts efforts, I realize that
they will eventually be laid aside with
our profuse thanks for the
threat the represented if the current
banking hardware did not do the
job we were about to do ourselves and
was therefore compelled to offer
the LETS software to compete. They point
is that they can get interest-
free credit cards to the Third World faster
than our puny local efforts
can.
*I see each of the societal groups above
participating in LETS for very
*different reasons: the nonprofits, like
the Red Cross, psych-survivor
*groups, social agencies - approach it
as a new tool for addressing the
*specific community problems they address.
The elderly tend to get in
*for the social and practical side as
they become less able to manage
*without help, and more isolated socially.
The CED outfits look at it
*as further defining their differences
with standard corporatism. The
*young unemployed just want a job and
skills. Scholars are in because
*it's fascinating, evolving quickly, with
tremendous implications
*academically and societally. Small business
sees competitive advantage
*in the trading infrastructure of a members-only
client group.
*Government seems perplexed, waiting.
And of course, lots of us are
*mixed into all of these sectors simultaneously.
JCT: Sure, it
works wonderfully because there's no positive
feedback. They should all like having
their own LETS account whether
they set them up themselves or government
and banks offer the service
for them. I think the Daughters of Charity
in El Paso Texas are a great
reference for those in favor of reducing
child mortality in poverty
stricken areas.
*Trying to boil it down to to a singular
topic might alienate one group
*or another. I've learned to try and identify
which sector I'm dealing
*with, and shift promotional tactics accordingly
- sometimes presenting
*LETS as sociology, sometimes as entrepreneurship,
sometimes as
*revolutionary economics. 1/s is a seminal
point,
JCT: But it most
clearly indicts the most seminal point of the
usury banking system: 1/(s-i), the positive
feedback of interest. And
i=0 is an assault on the cognitive dissonance
ingrained in all current
financial theorists.
*but misses the social
*side of implementation and keeping it
all running in unique community
*contexts, which is where the swapping
of practical notes is important.
JCT: Sure, as
en engineer, to me, LETS was designed as a lifeboat.
A machine. The social implications are
a direct function of how people
choose to use that machine and it always
pleases me to hear of
innovative uses made by people once hooked
up to the machine.
*I hadn't noticed that you always prefix
your subject headers with
*'TURMEL' - a nice courtesy, and it also
logically creates its own list
*without fracturing off. Perhaps if other
posts were similarly prefixed
*with 'PRACTICAL' or 'SCHOLARLY' then
it would achieve similar sublists
*while keeping everything together.
JCT: I always
thought so even though it has sometimes been
construed as a massive ego. I've found
it to be of immense help in
checking through newsgroups and mail.
I know there is a following who
like and approve my of programs and tactics
and those who are offended
by them. It all depends if I was right
when I picketed the Bank of
Canada with an "Interest kills" and "Abolish
Interest Rates" sign. If I
was wrong about the genocidal implications
of usury, then I was a fool
to have called myself The Engineer. If
I'm right, I won't only be known
as a great professional Poker player but
also as a great engineer who
did his duty. So, the flag has saved me
a lot of grief over the years.
*Getting back to LETS promotional tactics:
for me, communicating the
*entrepreneurship aspect is always the
starting point with business
*types and mainstream politicians - something
they can relate to
*immediately.
JCT: I have stock
routines which boil down to telling them about
saving the interest.
The pensioner
example works great and the teacher example is
particularly effective in demonstrating
how taxes can be paid faster.
*Maybe later weave in the community and
social health
*aspects of poor folks getting financially
stable through LETS, and
*then, if they're still listening, get
around to the more radical
*implications in terms of how it may restructure
economies themselves.
*(And I reverse the promotional pitch
completely when talking to
*anarchists!).
JCT: I like to
put them on the spot with a life-and-death issue
they are currently facing. When someone
dies because the ambulance
didn't get there in time, premiers take
the heat. When someone dies
because of environmental pollution, usually,
no one takes the heat.
Maybe someone.
*Anyway, I do read your posts, John, for
the most part, and have often
*found things in them that were helpful.
The size / volume issue seems
*more one of style - doesn't bother me
- but it might be a portability
*/ laptop issue (I read your posts in
restaurants), so I don't notice a
*problem with long emails, and enjoy them
over lunch. Old machines and
*clunky email software might be causing
others grief when they get
*these posts, however. And sometimes,
too, I get three copies of your
*posts at once (I don't even know which
lists I'm subcribed to these
*days)
JCT: I can't
understand since I only post to econ-lets. Unless you
download newsgroups automatically and
subscribe to any of
sci.econ, sci.engr, can.politics, ncf.ca.lets,
own.eco.lets,
alt.fan.john-turmel or a few others. So
there's no reason for your
getting 3 copies unless it's an error
at mailbase and I hope that
isn't too regular an occurrence.
*- back to your argument that a single,
unfractured list is perhaps
*more efficient in cutting down duplication.
JCT: I remember
writing to Richard after he'd been deluged by
complaints from readers that a controversial
correspondent is usually
encouraged rather than dissuaded from
writing. I simply figured that
since I was writing about current events
in the LETS political arena, a
quite unique kind of contribution, there
would be others who would
eventually need make use of the examples
I've used to handle
objections.
*Bye for now, Chris Hohner, Peterborough,
Ontario
JCT: I can't
help but be pleased to think that you are getting a
chance to explain the global ramifications
of LETS to players in the
political arena armed with some of my
arguments. Whatever one may think
after reading much internet material about
me, I know that ruling
Canadian governors hold no disrespect
for me, my political philosophy,
my political tactics. Jean Chretien was
Justice Minister while I was
defending home foreclosure victims and
fighting for my right to
political participation in highly-publicized
cases. He remembers the
old Socreds who always made sense. He's
never shown anything but
courtesy or fear as have 99% of my political
opponents, a large
percentage of them winners.
Of course, you
will soon face the issue about LETS being
associated with that political pest John
Turmel. I've been told the
best answer is to ask: What else has he
done other than scream about
LETS? Usually, they've all got their "Turmel"
stories to tell,
even their parents' "Turmel" stories to
tell about my picking
on their candidate, stealing the show
or disrupting the event. My
journals contain hundreds of adventures
which would have been even
funnier if I hadn't spend so much time
in jail. But even jail time
hasn't hurt my reputation considering
the Sheriff's men called the raid
Project Robin Hood. Other than fun kind
of crimes, Robin Hood's 44 runs
for Parliament have provided thousands
of funny political exchanges
even though they have, at the base, always
showed an insistence on
talking about LETS.
You know, every
time I hear about presentations to be given to
governments, I pray that one day, one
of them will open an account and
use a substantial amount of credit for
the public weal.
Of course, you
know that on government using Green credit, the two
LETS parent engineers are diametrically
opposed. Michael and I have
argued over whether government is worthy
of having access to Green
credit from the start and despite all
the historical examples of wise
use of Green credit by governments I have
provided, I still know that
every presentation made to governments
is in the context of them not
getting involved and helping locals do
it locally. Don't forget a
substantial LETS supporters who want government
to deliver LETS
services to us as a social service.
Of course, as
soon as the large commercial barter participants see
LETS databases as markets worthy of connecting
to and they adopt the
Hour standard of exchange, governments
will have to peg their money to
commercial LETS money in order to trade.
Global currency is coming and
fast.
One thing you
might discover is that financial people find
inflation ShiftB fascinating. And the
best way to demonstrate to them
how inflation ShiftB takes place to use
interest on tooth-picks to take
away one guy's watch. They can ask you
questions about it for
hours and not come out of it understanding
it though effects of those
six Argentinian Provincial Local Currency
systems seems to have cracked
the shell.
Finally, the
most attractive word to these kinds of people is the
word "market." And LETS databases are
"markets" of purchasing power in
the truest sense of the word, purchasing
power which retains its value
with the strength of the community.
Make sure you
take along a tape recorder and record your official,
even unofficial presentations. I know
it's a pain to carry around a
tape recorder as you go to the podium
since no one else does it but we
can all learn by hearing others' presentations
and am sure many would
find them of interest. There may not be
much more than glory in working
for LETS but it can't hurt getting in
early on the parade.
God be with you
and may they see the light.