Many of today’s challenges can be traced to growing income and wealth disparity. Lack of money is at the root of many seemingly unsolvable societal problems. Historically, communities have looked to the federal government to address that lack, on the assumption that all money comes from the government.

The reality is that the government is not the only entity allowed to issue money. We private citizens and businesses can too, and throughout U.S. history, we often have, according to this 2008 article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland titled Private Money in our Past, Present, and Future..³

“Who is allowed to issue money in the United States? The founding fathers made it clear that the power to create money would not be taken lightly. Their experiences with money and inflation during the Revolutionary War made them wary of paper money and conscious of the power wielded by those authorized to create it. They gave Congress the right to issue money and forbade the states from doing so. But the federal government isn’t the only entity that has, in practice, issued money. Private citizens and private companies have, too. . .”⁴

And therein lies a key to helping address the scarcity of money in the productive economy. The government calls money issued by private parties “virtual currencies”. As citizens of the United States, we can issue our own money as a virtual currency and use it to solve the kinds of problems listed below and more. This is not to be confused with cryptocurrencies (a form of virtual currency issued by private parties) which are driven by profit making objectives. The kind of virtual currencies we advocate for are ones designed to uplift all members of society and not just make some people wealthy, although they are primarily intended to aid those less fortunate than others, as described next.

And there is strong historical evidence that money issued by the people can have a dramatic and positive impact on local economies. Examples of successful local currency programs can be found throughout history. One of the most notable was in Europe during the Great Depression where the small Austrian town of Wörgl issued its own money called stamp scrip (a common form of currency also used throughout the U.S.). That effort was so successful in lifting the town’s economy that it became known as the Miracle of Wörgl.

Hundreds of communities across Europe flocked to Wörgl to learn the secret. Professor Irving Fisher, a leading U.S. economist, studied the Wörgl experiment and told FDR’s administration that “The correct application of stamp scrip would solve the Depression crisis in the U.S. in three weeks.” Even though it was determined that he was correct, no action was taken. (See the full Wörgl story, Fisher’s story and more here.)

The key for all of us is that we can apply the methods used in Wörgl and elsewhere to break free from the stranglehold that the current financial eco system has over us and create a new paradigm outside of its control and influence. We can look to the futurist Buckminster Fuller’s aphorism that “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Who is this intended to help?