LETS pretend: Learning about Money and Economic Systems of Exchange

In order for agents of change, publicity and media initiatives to be effective in creatiing postive social, environmental and economic change in our neighborhoods, and in our society at large, there is a need for certain paradigm shifts.  

Mitron Ardron wrote:  Back in 1985-87 when no one in England had heard of LETS, or any other community currency system, I was giving workshops on LETS (which is a complementary currency system) around England. People's understanding of money is really ingrained into the pshyche and it was really tough trying to get people to understand what it was all about, Michael's game, LETSplay, was too complicated and abstract for mere mortals to understand, so I dreamt up the following:"

Summary
The basic goals are:

* to illustrate how money works,
* and by comparisom how LETS (or other community currencies) work.
* To get participants at a worksop out of their seats and
interacting with each other.

It does this by in turn simulating: Barter; Money and Bank loans;
Syphoning of money from a community; and LETS.
Stage 1 illustrates Barter, the most primitive of exchange systems.

* Hand out the cards, and pencils
* Ask the participants to write down on the card, skills they
have, or stuff they'd be prepared to barter.
o In this stage, as in all of the rest, I found it worked
best to pull one or two people out of the audience and use them as an
example before getting everyone to do it.
o Be prepared to use this stage to deal with people's
self-negating beliefs that they have nothing to offer to the community.
* Get the participants to wander around the room, introducing
themselves, and looking at each other's cards for things they might be
interested in Bartering.
* After a few minutes get the people to sit down, and ask what
transactions occured.
* Typically there will be a few transactions, but few will be able
to find matches where each has something the other needs.

Stage 2 illustrates Money and Bank loans

* Stick up a sheet of paper on a wall and label it "Classifieds"
* Pick one of the participants from the audience,
* Pretend to be a bank, and loan him several coins.
* Ask him what he's looking for - things or services, write it on
the board.
* If someone in the audience can meet that need, then:
o the first participant should "buy" the good/service from
the second,
o the request should be deleted from the board
o repeat the process by this person writing down what they need.
* At this point its usefull to draw the audience's attention to
the fact that while there is only one unit of money circulating,
several transactions have occurred. Its also usefull to explain how
governements use control of this "money-supply" to control how fast
goods and services circulate.
* Make several more loans, and allow the audience to interact
among themselves.
* Encourage the audience to use the "Classifieds" board to post
hard to find things they want.

Stage 3 illustrates chain-stores and other ways money is drained

* Pull one of the audience aside,
* Ask him or her to pretend to be a shop
* The characteristics of a shop is that it always has whatever
someone asks it for
* The shopkeeper should be meeting people's needs, while
accumulating a collection of money.
* Very quickly as the money supply dries up the flow of other
transactions will dry up as well.
* Stop the game, get the audience to sit down, and ask the
audience if they've noticed what has happened, if not then point it out.
* Find participant one - from the previous stage - ask them to
repay the loan. Presuming they can't, reposess their chair (Excuse for
gratuitous theatre!)

Stage 4 illustrates community currencies.

* Stick some more paper on the wall.
* Label the sheet "accounts" draw four columns, and label them
"From", "To", "Amount", "Good/Service"
* Find a volunteer, ask them for something they are looking for,
and find a match in the audience.
* Write up a trade on the board - they go in the From column, the
match goes in the To column, negotiate an amount (this works fine if
the currency is "dollars" but needs a little explaining if it is "hours".
* Draw attention to what this means, that the first person owes a
debt to the community not to the other person, and that the other
person is in credit.
* Ask the first person what they have to offer, and the second
what they are looking for, let them record both these trades themselves.
* Throw it open to the audience to all participate.
* That's it, now stop the game and move on to discussion.

What you need

* Enough 4 * 3 cards for each participant.
* Enough pencils for each participant.
* Some large sheets of paper, or a whiteboard
* Markers for the paper (or whiteboard), make sure they are
dry-erase markers in case you use a whiteboard.
* A chair to stand on, and a loud voice to shout over the rabble.
* A supply of pennies or other small coins, maybe as many as there
are participants.

Source: the now defunct: http://www.mitra.biz/lets-pretend.htm  

-End of games.

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Note:  Thrive NY is a Manhattan based
group which seeks to transition New York City
into a sustainable city, interdependent with the surrounding region and the
world at large. From the outset, it grounds ideas in action, education, and
discussion.  This group is planning a open forum format Town Hall in which
cutting edge ideas regarding complementary currencies, permaculture, home grown
food, barter and other forms of trade, solutions to peak oil, alternative forms
of energy and other topics related to our changing times, will be discussed. 

These games might be an interesting interactive activity to do at the town
hall as a means at addressing emotional resistance to new ideas and getting
unstuck from old thought patterns and belief systems based on the existing
paradigm . Any thoughts?

- Salma