Here are some of the advantages of using the Community Exchange System
- It provides an alternative way of acquiring goods and services, and so reduces our dependence on money
- It bridges the ‘money gap’ between the skills/offers/talents/gifts of providers and the wants/needs that we all have. Conventional money usually can’t bridge this gap because its supply is limited or non-existent.
- It builds community by creating links with those around us who can help satisfy our requirements
- CES provides a range of exchange options: time exchange, swaps, barter, gifting, sharing, time banking, metric currencies, virtual currencies
- CES’ metric currencies measure and so can never be in short supply like conventional issued, circulating currencies
- CES’ metric currencies can never be in oversupply and cause inflation
- It is democratic: it returns the ‘money power’ to the people
- It allocates credit democratically
- It eliminates usury. Its money is ‘free’ (i.e. interest free)
- It keeps wealth where it is created
- It eliminates cheating, theft and fraud (of money)
- It provides a support network
- It eliminates the problem of providers not being paid for what they supply
- It reconciles the accounts of providers and recipients immediately
- It promotes honesty because one can never ‘run out of money’
- It levels the playing field: everyone starts from zero and those who deliver real value to others are the ones who get ‘rich’, not those who deliver nothing but acquire their wealth by rent seeking, manipulating the currency and other non-productive activities
- It gives local suppliers preference
- It eliminates the waste of transporting goods from all over because its focus is local
- It destroys the notion that the source of money is a job: the source of ‘money’ is the delivery of value from one entity (person, company etc.) to another
- It streamlines transactions and eliminates wasted effort (e.g. sending accounts, debt collecting)
- It mobilizes the real wealth of a community: The knowledge and skills of its people is the real wealth of a community
- It fosters self-reliance and self esteem
- It fosters social justice and equality
- And many, many more…