#Monopoly money how to

Through local trade, we become surrounded by people we trust. By contrast, the local marketplace is a real place where people become friends, lovers, and political allies. Every big company will say they care about nature, but the imperative is always to make the maximum profit. The global marketplace trades numbers at the speed of light, without regard for the damage done to communities or nature. We wanted to meet more local needs and contribute to a sense of community.Īnd we wanted to bring humanity to the marketplace. We wanted to strengthen local small businesses. We needed more control of investment, and we wanted to depend less on the American empire.

During the recession in the early 1990s, my friends and I needed more money-more control over money and what it does. I sensed that the community had done many good things, but needed a way to bind these good things together. These are main reasons why, twenty years ago, I designed paper money for Ithaca, New York.

Gold vending machine, Augsburger bank, Germany. The only real money is therefore money that rebuilds communities, rebuilds nature, and rebuilds the future. While many prefer to work to create beautiful goods or grow beautiful food, to share with others, most official jobs still contribute to corporate domination. Today, even when the official economy is doing well, millions of people are unemployed, millions work jobs they hate, species are eradicated, and the planet’s generous resources are destroyed. In the next decade one might invest in rubles to make a profit, however, when Russia’s gas, minerals, and forests are eventually exhausted, the only credible money will be that which begins to repair centuries of damage. Even the euro depends on natural gas imported from Russia to maintain its vitality. During the past 50 years, the primary guarantor of the dollar has been the US military, now based in 150 nations and losing its grip on cheap oil, cheap minerals, and cheap labor. In the US, money has become especially worthless because it is no longer backed by gold, but by less than nothing-by rusting industry and trillions of dollars of national debt. For this reason, real money is money that renews nature. This is the ecological significance of local economies: you cannot have an economy unless you have a planet with trees and water, with soil for growing food. Regardless of whether the value of a currency is higher today or lower the next day, all national currencies are in debt to nature, because all human economies are extracting resources from nature faster than they can be renewed. Even at times when a lot of money is circulating, it is not necessarily being distributed well.Īll national currencies, I believe, are funny money. Community currency does not necessarily replace national currency, but the lack of national currency in places where it does not reach.

It will be real money to the extent that people trade with it. So why shouldn’t artists create their own money? It will not be Monopoly money, but anti-monopoly money. Just as artists are essential to the movement of armies, which gather around music, uniforms, flags, so does the artist have a pivotal role in determining the future of money, and the future of the economy. The graphic, written, and musical arts reinforce the belief that financial institutions are authorized to issue and to control money. And much of our society relies on the cultural messages transmitted through official-looking pieces of paper, from mortgages to graduation diplomas. Money often takes the form of official-looking pieces of paper designed by artists, but furthermore, the credibility of any money rests on cultural messages that validate the institutions claiming power over commerce. And artists are generally so dedicated to art that they ignore profit.īut artists are cultural leaders, and for this reason they can become financial leaders, because money is primarily a cultural product. And perhaps you or they are artists, since most artists typically do not have enough money-especially in the United States, where art is always the last thing to be funded. If (document.Perhaps you or someone you know does not have enough money. It also excites the real estate entrepreneur in all of us.

#Monopoly money how to

It's an easy way to teach children about how to save & when to spend. I played this game when I was younger and wanted my kids to have the same love of the game.