From Deborah Lindsay's Tomorrow Matters site from Peter Glover-
Here in Ithaca, New York, we've begun to gain control of the social and environmental effects of commerce by issuing over $110,000 of our own local paper money, to thousands of residents, since 1991. Tens of thousands of purchases and many new friendships have been made with this cash, and millions of dollars value of local trading has been added to the Grassroots National Product.
We printed our own money because we watched Federal dollars come to town, shake a few hands, then leave to buy rainforest lumber and fight wars. Ithaca's HOURS, by contrast, stay in our region to help us hire each other. While dollars make us increasingly dependent on transnational corporations and bankers, HOURS reinforce community trading and expand commerce which is more accountable to our concerns for ecology and social justice.
Find out how Paul created this alternative and local currency: http://www.deborahlindsay.com/_/Tomorrow_Matters/Entries/2009/5/17_Paul_Glover%2C_Founder_of_Ithaca_Hours.html
