Massachusetts BerkShares: Not Such a Goofy Idea

"Communities Print Own Currencies to Keep Money Local"
FOXNews (April 9, 2009)

"GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — It looks like Monopoly money, but the colorful currency created by collaborators in the western Massachusetts town of Great Barrington is legal tender.

"The creative cash is called 'BerkShares,' a play on words, referring to the mountainous region called the Berkshires, where businesses and citizens have come together to support each other in these tough economic times...."

An interesting idea. I think I can understand the feelings behind having a strictly local currency: but I'm not at all sure that this is a good idea.

Beyond Great Barrington, Massachusetts and BerkShares: Business Bucks

The idea behind BerkShares is something that businesses can (and do) use: an association of businesses can agree to treat ChamberBucks, or whatever, as real money. Accounting could be tricky, of course.

I've got a notion for using the idea of 'play money' in an online setting, too - oops. Too late. It's gone now.

Maybe it'll come back.

I'd Never Be That Stupid

During one of those dot-com fiascoes I read an article about a particularly impressive failure.

A band of highly talented, intelligent, and creative people made enormous sums of money. Not realizing how wildly income can fluctuate, they spent money as if their income spike was a plateau.

Their offices were a wonderland of huge ceiling-mounted television screens, with ergonomic executive chairs at every desk and workstation: apparently, all the creature comforts and technological toys they could find.

It could have been worse. If the optimistic greenhorns had blown their earnings on steak and champaign, their creditors would have been losers, too.

At the time, I smugly thought that I'd never make such a novice mistake.

Last year, I found a great deal of very spiffy software, and spent rather more money than I had, getting it.

Dumb.

I may be able to figure out a way to use all that stuff, or I may not. The sort of software it is, I can't re-sell it, or return it. I'm being vague, because the details aren't that important, except to me. Besides, this is embarrassing enough as it is.

I've stopped the hemorrhage of funds, but every cent that I spent back then is money I can't spend now.

I try to find a positive spin on everything, but the best I find here is that all that stuff may come in handy, someday.