Can Money Make Community?

Great Barrington, Massachusetts - a small, beautiful town along the banks of the Housatonic River in the Berkshire Hills - is employing an innovative, if strange, strategy to boost its local economy. They've created a parallel currency in the form of BerkShares, bills featuring W. E. B. DuBois and Norman Rockwell and accepted only by local merchants. Residents are enticed to trade their Jacksons for Melvilles by the favorable exchange rate: $10 buys 11 BerkShares. "The idea is that merchants will absorb the 10 percent discount, then use those same BerkShares to pay their own bills," reports the New York Times. In addition to boosting local pride by celebrating local figures, the creators of the BerkShares scheme say their (non) funny money will have big impact: "The central purpose behind BerkShares is to strengthen the local economy, perhaps even inoculate it against the whims of globalization, by encouraging people to support local businesses. Amazon does not accept BerkShares, for example, but the Bookloft on Route 7 does."

But after five months of dealing with dual currencies, not all merchants are convinced. Many have found that their vendors are unwilling to accept BerkShares, so they end up absorbing the effective 10% discount themselves. They have found, however, that refusing to participate in the scheme has serious consequences, from decreaesed business to angry looks on Main St. " Paul Masiero, the owner of Baba Louie’s, a restaurant on Main Street, whose family also owns Guido’s, says he did not immediately join the BerkShares program because of the extra bookkeeping. Then he heard that some were saying baba-phooey to Baba Louie’s. “We felt they were bad-mouthing us around town,” Mr. Masiero says, half-smiling. “So, eventually, we signed up. And we’ve had a warm, fuzzy feeling ever since.”"

  

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