Overview | How | Basis | Name | Backing | Implementation | Paper | Presentation | Risks | Benefits

Basis

In order to be truly free from the dollar, our currency must represent something of real value - not merely a fixed equivalent in dollars. What our currency represents says something about what we value, as a community.

Each common good bank community's currency will represent various locally-produced goods that maintain a steady value, particularly farm products: milk, eggs, corn, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, apples, etc. - a "market basket" assortment of basic commodities, similar to that proposed by Ralph Borsodi in the early 1970's.

The value of this currency will be kept stable by benchmarking its value periodically against the official currency (dollars). As often as needed, we will survey local retail prices (in dollars) for selected food items and other necessities. The average of these prices will be compared to a baseline value to calculate the current value of the dollar relative to the new currency (whose purchase power remains constant).

As an alternative, some common good bank communities may benchmark their local currency against the dollar value of some other stable product, service or combination, such as silver, calories or average local hourly labor rates (the original basis for Ithaca New York's "Ithaca Hours" currency).