Small Change

This little idea has been bothering me for months: to use money to pay for stuff

Monetary Outcast

I live partially outside the monetary economy, and have an income level that on paper puts me among the destitute in Northern Europe. It doesn't keep me from living a good life. In many respects of higher quality than many of the more affluent. I work mornings as a builder and choose to dedicate a lot of the remaining time to writing, art, repairs, and making and growing stuff to fulfil my needs. I rent. Pay a small amount to live on someone else's farm, working somebody else's soil. To put it short, don't come to me for get-rich-any-time-soon plans.

I do have ideas. Most seem okay until they turn out useless but fun. But here's a thought that has been pulling my shirt for a while now. A good sign I might be on to something.

It's just an innocent little idea (he said with a soothing voice). Nothing illegal (I think, not sure here) nothing world changing (probably not, not sure here either). Just an old habit with new potential.

A pot of change.

I did it as a kid. Trying to get rich by saving. It clearly didn't work. My grandparents had the same frugal habit. The money pot. A large mason jar with — mostly copper — coins. The occasional paper note was always the first to go. Followed by the bigger bread. The shiny silvery stock was filtered out when a need drove one to spill the pot's contents onto the kitchen table. That old-fashioned pile of copper sounded so good. It doesn't amount to anything, though. No real dough in there. Just a little buffer for a rainy day.

Back to where we are now. With CBDC on the horizon. A cloud gathering that announces rainy weather of a wholly different scale. Central Bank Digital Currency. Well, you can make up your own mind on this scheme. It's not like you and I will make a difference in the roll-out. One thing is clear, cash equals bad, someday soon. It can't be traced. It is too opaque. One day, not too far from now, you will be asked, politely of course, to hand in your pot of gold. It will be added, after deducting some handling costs, exchange rates, digitalisation tax or whatever, to the central bank account. The big pot in the sky. Free for all, a true must have.

After that point, you no longer have any money. You'll have nothing, and you won't disturb other people's happiness no more. You no longer have a pot of change to hold. The pot of change now contains you and all that you do, and buy, and support, and not do that you maybe should, or do differently than suggested. And every ounce you can't account for can and will be held against you in a court owned by the central bank managers. The pot holders. What a wonderful prospect. A society free of criminal currencies. What a big promise to keep.

I would hate to have to say I told you so. So that's why I won't. I am handing you a small change of plan. One of those little adjustments that can make us (you and me, I mean) end up in a very different place.

Start a pot of change. Put every coin that lands in your wallet in there. Most people still can without it having a noticeable impact on their spending. No paper, paper is the boundary, paper money is the old evil, not seriously, just being clear here, only treasure chest tinkling Mammonian substance allowed in there. The real, difficult to copy or produce, deal. Hard cash. Not because the rarified coins will gain value, no, we will use them for a creative endeavour.

A make-use-of-what-is-here, kind of project. An I-must-create-my-own system-or-be-enslaved kind of civil slight-obedience¹. A nobody-tells-me-how-to-live-a-good-life stubbornness that rises above any political wing, or theory. It just gives back the power of exchange to the idea of money that made money big in the first place. A neutral, untainted way of trading real stuff.

I haven't worked this out fully. Practice will do that. But it feels like one of those little, obnoxious sparks that cannot be extinguished once here. It is applicable in every money system, and it can and will evolve differently in different situations. The one condition is to make a proper gap in the valuation (like a hundred times less, one cent is a dollar.) But the power lies in the first line function that automatically dissipates when outgrown. It is for small stuff. And that's a pretty big thing.

Here's what we could do with the coins we have at our disposal (and if not claimed they will be disposed off for you), use them as local currency for barter. For the next step after trading actual goods. As soon as you get past the one on one deal. A parallel value system that totally ignores big market pricing. Potatoes, could have a double price. The official supermarket level, and a much lower local value, only to be paid with proper coins. The local currency. And strangely enough, that low price pretty soon will have a higher value. The local trader prefers to be paid in cash because it represents pure and real value to them. Not telling you to conjure a black market here, it is no problem to put the cash exchange on your tax returns. They will hardly make a dent. Because the incentive no longer is to get a price as high as possible, but to get a levelled value on local (seasonal) goods. Local market visitors will make sure to bring a good pouch of pennies to get the better deal. And the small change brought in, will remain local. It never gets back into the Amazonian type of pocket.

Yes, I am aware it probably is an intermediate system. But that could mean whole towns, whole regions will survive those decades. It is unregulated and therefore self organising. It looses its power in the higher end of trade. You can never buy a new car with your pot of coins. They are hardly worth stealing, unless you are hungry. So, charity might shift. Giving away some coins that now have purchasing power. It is basically a local currency that doesn't need a huge investment….

I am not an economist² in anyone's school, but please let me know how this could work, or is total crap. Just the off chance this works is enough for me to share the idea. Nobody will be harmed by a handful of coins. Unless it turns out to be good ammunition for a slingshot, those two euro discs pack quite the punch I imagine. Shoot down silly plans or....make those Tesla's pull over and 'beg' for some real change.

While on the subject of small change…I have added the possibility to buy me a coffee ☕️ ☕️ . Over there you can now also purchase e-book versions of the published stories.

An idea on a parallel monetary system that uses the coins of the existing one by simply ignoring their ‘false’ economic value and replacing it with real but ‘smaller’ values. Mainly food, services, and items for personal use. Voluntary deflation?

The Castle Of The Naked Knights

Season 3 can be read separately…the second episode is online

1. Billie Blake, my dear friend, already said it. “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
William Blake Jerusalem (1815) ‘Chapter 1’ (plate 10, l. 20)

2. Here is a real economist on the subject of local currency. David Fleming. His remarkable dictionary, Lean Logic is a dangerous read. Better not follow this link: local currency