首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
There was a time when only governments could create money, and as Mike Rowbotham explains in his excellent book, The Grip of Dea
There was a time when only governments could create money, and as Mike Rowbotham explains in his excellent book, The Grip of Dea
admin
2021-03-27
41
问题
There was a time when only governments could create money, and as Mike Rowbotham explains in his excellent book, The Grip of Death, they have long since delegated 97 percent of that responsibility to the banks—which create it in the form of mortgages or interest-bearing loans.
They are helped by the credit card companies, which give the power to customers to create their own debts—and create their own money at the same time—every time their card is swiped through a till.
But now there are also supermarkets and airlines issuing their own money.Tesco, Safeway, and other businesses all issue their own points to encourage regular customers.A whole range of businesses deal in frequent-flier miles, which you can spend on an ever-increasing variety of goods and services, and which then disappear when you’ve spent them.In the United States, there are now a range of off-the-shelf "incentive cards" along the same lines for companies to offer their customers.There is even one card that acts as a combined loyalty and credit card.You can use it to buy things with "loyalty points" you haven’t earned yet, but which then have to be repaid with increased customer loyalty.
None of these innovations help us to improve either the shortage of money, the collapse of local communities, or the damage done by worldwide human greed.But they do open up new possibilities for experiments with new kinds of money which are kinder to the planet—and maybe even turning the base metal of human poverty into something closer to gold.As we know, with Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS) in the United Kingdom, people have been experimenting with this technology to invent their own new kinds of money.LETS money is available to anyone with time and skills, is less dependent on the increasingly bizarre fluctuations of the market, and does less damage to the planet by not charging ruinous interest.
Similar ideas are suddenly popping up all over the world.But in America, as befits the great money innovators, the field is even broader, with a range of local currencies all launched to achieve a different aspect of local sustainability.Time dollars, for example, is a non-market kind of money that recognizes the contribution people make to the places they live.Time dollars record, store, and find new ways of rewarding the human transactions where neighbours help neighbours, such as giving lifts to older people.One hour is worth an hour, whether you are a rich lawyer or an elderly widow.
All of the work is voluntary, yet none of it is volunteer work.
Research shows that the Time dollar idea also helps us to see work differently, recognizing that caring work is productive work.Governments may not define it as such, and economists may balk at the whole idea, but it is.
Then there are Hours, the innovative printed currency, which has revolutionized the local economy of Ithaca in upstate New York.Now Ithaca is home to what is probably the biggest local currency in the world.Like so many other small cities, Ithaca local business was threatened by large nationwide chains that took money away from local business and sent profits out of the area.The result was that local incomes were falling, economic self-determination was crumbling, and the city was increasingly dependent on expensive, packaged imports to the area, usually brought in from great distances by multinational traders.
These experiments may be difficult to sustain, but they could potentially give people the means to provide themselves with the money they need—when it normally seeps away to the big cities and massive world capital flows.Taken together, they could mean an economic breakthrough for tackling poverty and social collapse and, given the implications of economic collapse in Russia or the Far East, an urgent one for the whole of humanity.
What does the author mean by "All of the work is voluntary, yet none of it is volunteer work" in the fifth paragraph?
选项
答案
People in the community are willing to help others and they get paid with Time dollars in turn.
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/tHfK777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Howtofindtruelove?Asawriterofromancenovels,Icreateexoticfantasies.Myheroinesarebeautiful,myheroesgilded
HomerSimpson______thegreatestcharactercreatedfortelevisionandfilmsinthepast20years.
Feedbackmatters.Whetherwearetryingtofindourwaytoanewfriend’shouse,aimingtoimproveourperformanceonthegolf
Feedbackmatters.Whetherwearetryingtofindourwaytoanewfriend’shouse,aimingtoimproveourperformanceonthegolf
ThenativepeopleofNorthandSouthAmericaweregiventhename"Indians"bythe【21】ChristopherColumbus.Hethoughthehadre
ThenativepeopleofNorthandSouthAmericaweregiventhename"Indians"bythe【21】ChristopherColumbus.Hethoughthehadre
ThenativepeopleofNorthandSouthAmericaweregiventhename"Indians"bythe【21】ChristopherColumbus.Hethoughthehadre
Wheredotigerslive?North-easternChina,theIndiansubcontinent,andtheRussianFarEastareallhometodifferentspecies
Wheredotigerslive?North-easternChina,theIndiansubcontinent,andtheRussianFarEastareallhometodifferentspecies
随机试题
A、局部红肿,有疼痛和烧灼感,皮温稍增高B、水疱稍饱满,有剧痛和感觉过敏,皮温增高C、水疱饱满,感觉迟钝,皮温增高D、水疱较小或扁薄,感觉迟钝,皮温稍低E、创面可见树枝状栓塞血管Ⅰ度烧伤的特征是()
社会福利具有以下特征()。
在施工质量管理中,起决定性作用的因素是()。
根据《招标投标法》的有关规定,依法必须进行招标的项目,招标人应当自确定中标人之日起()日内,向有关行政监督部门提交招标投标情况书面报告。
下属运动是主运动的有()。
甲企业为增值税一般纳税人,适用的增值税税率为16%,该企业生产主要耗用一种原材料,该材料按计划成本进行日常核算,计划单位成本为每千克20元,2018年6月初,该企业“银行存款”科目余额为300000元,“原材料”和“材料成本差异”科目的借方余额分别为300
下列事项中,汇票必须记载的事项有( )。
下列关于行政处罚中“一事不再罚原则”的表述正确的是:
二七惨案
约言之,藏书的当能铸冶治学的风气,影响学风,学术思想的活跃,学术思想的活跃又进一步学风,并给著述提供津梁。战国时期学术的百家争鸣的出现,无疑与图书事业的发展有千丝万缕的联系。。梁代萧绎出任荆州称帝江陵,,招致饱学之士如林,使长江中游地方
最新回复
(
0
)