When they asked me to write the story of the PLENTY I told them I would be delighted. Even though I wasn’t there in the beginning.
In my mind’s eye it was a group of people gathered around a kitchen table in Carrboro dreaming up plans for a local currency. Matt Kalb was there. Surely Annissa Clarke was there too. There had to be others. I believe Paul Aaron was an early thought leader for the Plenty.
Some way, some how, they managed to move the idea off the table and into the world. They got the renowned Emma Skurnik to draw up some fantastic images and they got a printer from Raleigh to print a stack of bright, colorful, bank-like notes. They were beautiful. So beautiful that people hung them on their walls. See our About the PLENTY page for pictures.
The original intent was to limit the geographical circulation of the currency. The original founders defined the realm as a corridor that began in Hillsboro, ran through Carrboro, and ended in Pittsboro. Apparently Durham was also in their thinking. See the FAQ which is a blend of old and new visions.
At the time I was a studio artist in Moncure. I was so excited about the presence of the PLENTY that I offered to spread its acceptance throughout Sanford, where I did most of my business. Moncure was already the outer orbit of its range, and I was asked not to spread my enthusiasm for the PLENTY into Sanford.
And I am guessing they knocked themselves out. They tabled at functions and recruited members at festivals and they made copies of posters and they held meetings large and small and they visited merchants and they dealt with the media and they put the Plenty on the map.
You can use Plenties and Federal Reserve Notes to buy a loaf of bread. (Photo by Jessica Benton)
I’m going to say it was a massive effort by a group of passionate volunteers. I’m imagining long hours and sore feet for intangible rewards. They built a credible website and they came out with a “Grants program,” and they must have brainstormed and stressed and worked and worked to create such a successful project.
In those days anyone could become a member. You sent in federal reserve notes, and you received a stack of PLENTYs in return. And you had your business or service listed on their website and in their directory.
Membership grew. People started buying and selling things with PLENTYs. You could use them to pay for massage, or to hire an electrician, or to buy groceries at Weaver Street Market. You could spend them on your Internet service, and use them at the General Store Café.
The currency went around and around-Back then I always had some PLENTYs folded into the U.S. dollars I carried in my pocket. But eventually it began to fade.
As the years rolled by the PLENTY declined. I’m not exactly sure why-but I started receiving less and less of them. Weaver Street Market backed up and could find no circulatory relief. Merchants started changing their acceptance policies. Instead of accepting PLENTYs for lunch, they started limiting how many they would take.
There were blocks in the circulation system, and people were afraid they would get stuck with them. My old studio roommate and friend Stacye Leanza joined the PLENTY Board of Trustees and worked on increasing circulation by designing “loops” of businesses that shared common expenses which they could pay for in PLENTYs.
At some point the organization took a run at becoming a non-profit but their application was turned down by the IRS. And circulation slowed.
People fall in love, and people move away, and people go back to school. By the summer of 2008 the Plenty organization was all but extinct. The website had stopped functioning properly, there was no number to call, emails stopped being returned. From an organizational perspective the PLENTY was dead.
Although it kept circulating. People kept using it. It is a tribute to the good folks that created this thing that it had enough resilience to survive on its own.
I wrote a bit about the PLENTY in my second book, Small is Possible; Life in a Local Economy-which came out in the spring of 2008. It caught the attention of BJ Lawson, who was running for Congress at the time.
By then I was working at the biodiesel plant in Pittsboro, and BJ came down to interview me for a film clip he was making. We delved into economics and monetary theory and politics and we connected deeply.
He came back for lunch a couple of times after that, and one day when he was dining next to Matt Rudolf, the Executive Director of Piedmont Biofuels. When the conversation turned to the PLENTY, Matt lit up with enthusiasm. It turned out he was at the heart of the Pittsboro PLENTY circulatory system. He was routinely buying all the PLENTYs from Chatham Marketplace and using them to pay his interns. His interns in turn were spending their PLENTYs around town.
Someone suggested we rebuild an organization to assist in the revitalization of the PLENTY. BJ led the effort and a group of us called everyone in the old PLENTY Directory to see what they thought of the idea.
Some had gone out of business. Lots of phone numbers no longer worked. Some had forgotten the PLENTY. But the vast majority were delighted to hear there was talk about bringing an organization back to life.
I argued that we needed a bank. I felt that having a bank involved would allay fears about being “stuck with all the PLENTY,” and I went to work on getting a bank involved.
That’s where Small is Possible came back into play. In the Chapter “Financing Ourselves” I wrote about our locally owned Capital Bank. It was founded in part by the owner of the scrap yard where I used to shop. Poly liked the book, distributed copies of the book around Sanford, and was delighted to get me a meeting with the president of the bank.
BJ Lawson finished that job, and the Capital Bank branch in Pittsboro is ready to exchange Plenties for dollars.
I should say that in the past I begged the Plenty folks to bring a bank into play. One of their influencers, Robert Andrew Smith of Leaflight fame steered me in the direction of how banks are evil and part of the problem. Fair enough.
Having a locally owned bank that will exchange our local currency is at the heart of our Plenty revitalization efforts. I believe that once merchants can simply take their Plenties to the bank, all fear of the currency will melt away.
And what about when the bank has all the PLENTYs? That’s easy. They will be vacuumed up by Piedmont Biofuels and distributed back into the community as a portion of people’s pay. Which will cause people to spend them at the merchants that take Plenties, and on and on it shall go.
BJ, who has a much larger brain than mine, has pointed out the irony of a biodiesel company as a backstop for Plenties. U.S. dollars, after all, tend to be pegged to petroleum.
The board of The Abundance Foundation stepped up to be the new organization’s fiscal sponsor, and some tax deductible donations rolled in. With some startup money, and the help of the Abundance umbrella, we are hoping to hire Melissa Frey-the visionary founder of Chatham Marketplace to spearhead the new PLENTY effort.
Which has been buttressed, along the way, by Moya and Camille and Jaime and Ian and a bunch of passionate folks who like to receive PLENTYs, and spend PLENTYs, and who get excited about a vibrant local economy.
Who knows? It could be there will be a lot of tabling and meeting and speaking and passion required for the next chapter in the life of the Plenty.
From what I can tell so far, we are up for it…
That’s my history of the PLENTY. I hope someone else who was closer to it will help fill in gaps and expand this story.
The original organization might have fizzled. But the currency remarkably lived on. As we build the new organization, we are confident the PLENTY will go to even greater heights.
Simon is an engineer by training, but he also makes a terrific "hand model" in a pinch... (Photo by Jessica Benton)
I am an Engineer too, and a dedicated student of economics (Austrian school). I read every word, waiting for some explanation of the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the plenty. Limited issue? Pegged to the Dollar? Pegged to gold? If it’s pegged to the dollar, it’s simply an issue of extra “credit”, inflating still more the insane inflation (debasement or counterfeiting) of the dollar.
A paper currency created without a commodity precurser (like wheat or gold) is worthless and gives no basis for setting prices. How many plentys to buy a cup of coffee? 0.035? 8,750,000,000,000?
So tell me more about the plenty. I’m amazed that it had any significant degree of acceptance. Each paper plenty should carry a pledge, a contract, a promise to redeem it with a specific amount of something of value. Otherwise it isn’t money or even a credible money substitute.
Glenn — the “technicals” regarding convertibility and exchange rates are on the FAQ Page.
As you note, for a currency to be widely accepted it must be convertible into something of accepted value or else have the force of law behind it (i.e., “legal tender”). Since the PLENTY is clearly not legal tender — it is a voluntary barter currency — it must be convertible to be widely accepted.
With the relaunch, we are establishing a fully-reserved currency that is initially convertible into Federal Reserve Notes. Over time, we will release additional “flavors” of PLENTYs that are similarly backed by other commodities — perhaps redeemable in locally-produced biodiesel, agricultural commodities, or silver/gold.
As you note, convertibility/redeemability is critically important in establishing trust. By providing a currency with that simple attribute, the money supply will expand naturally as the wealth increases in the community.
I appreciate Lyle’s recognition of the work that went into the original PLENTY.
I think the original PLENTY not being convertible was more than just an oversight or a declaration that banks are evil (I don’t think the original group ever had that conversation). When one spent a PLENTY, one knew it had to be spent again locally. It was OK to pay more than WALMART prices for that wrench or local supermarket prices for the tomato since, it was hoped, you were guaranteed that money would be spent for other local things (maybe at your own business) that didn’t benefit from the negative externalizes of international trade. “In Each Other We Trust” meant just that; accepting a PLENTY meant you trusted that you could spend it again somewhere.
I remember asking businesses if they took PLENTY’s and, time and time again, I was told they didn’t because the didn’t buy much locally. Their payroll was done in Ohio, they bought their supplies from Staples, and they couldn’t afford to buy anything but the absolute cheapest items available. When I see those “Buy Local” stickers I always imagine “(but we don’t)” underneath them. Often businesses want me to buy local but they don’t make that same commitment themselves, either as a business or in their personal lives (even if they don’t sell what is made locally, at least their labor is locally produced and they can take some salary in local currency to spend elsewhere.)
The new PLENTY will be convertible and, perhaps, that will make is succeed where the old currency had failed. But in some sense, it succeeds by giving up on the trust and the inherent contract of the original. A business could just accept PLENTY’s with the intent of it being just a 10% coupon for getting peoples business and take the month’s accumulation to the bank for exchange to dollars and spend them at Staples. In some ways it isn’t really any different than publishing a 10% coupon in the local paper.
The original PLENTY was not issued to random people who sent in a membership application. It was required that they agree to accept PLENTYs in exchange for goods or services they produced. Those who didn’t have a business were encouraged to buy PLENTY’s from a vendor who had many of them. The exchange bank was the rest of the community.
There are many reasons the original PLENTY didn’t take off. Certainly the odd denominations were confusing, many of the “businesses” were not the member’s primary business, and there were decisions that could have been made better. But in the end, I believe a big impediment was local businesses unwillingness to commit to buying locally themselves.
Certainly our local coops and many galleries feature local goods and I have made a personal commitment to buy from them whenever I can. It is harder to determine for other stores if they buy locally. I always saw an acceptance of the (old) PLENTY as a good sign that they do, I don’t think it is as clear with the new one.
I wish the best of luck with this.
P.S. A question: Given the similarities in the old and new currencies, is there any official policy on what will happen with the old currency?
Joe – Excellent points on the challenges of buying locally. It’s also important to note that the PLENTY succeeded as a currency. It was so successful, in fact, that it continued to circulate long after the organization behind it vanished. That alone speaks to its resiliency, the need for a local currency, and the success of the original founders.
One of the PLENTY’s other successes, in my opinion, was illustrating just how much work we still have to create a vibrant, sustainable local economy — especially with respect to the essentials like food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. My first step in understanding the path of the PLENTY was talking with vendors who were involved in the original currency, including Weaver Street Market. I had an extremely illuminating conversation with the folks at Weaver Street, and that discussion really captured the frustration they felt at not being *able* to buy enough locally from suppliers who took the PLENTY.
I left that conversation with the conclusion that buying locally is a “chicken and egg” problem. In the case of Weaver Street, it wasn’t so much an issue of not being willing to buy locally as it was not being *able* to buy locally. They just couldn’t find enough local trading partners who were willing to accept the PLENTYs that were rolling in.
That’s a big part of our challenge — we need more local businesses, more local suppliers who can meet the needs of their trading partners. Creating those businesses takes time, effort, and talent — as well as a market opportunity.
Our expectation is that a reinvigorated local currency will highlight local market opportunities while providing the time for these new businesses to develop. For example, as the local co-op grocery begins to see an influx of local currency, they will begin looking for ways to spend the currency… and their efforts to find local suppliers will assist new suppliers in establishing themselves. But convertibility ensures that the grocer won’t be left wondering how to meet payroll or pay invoices in the short run while new suppliers are being identified.
In other words, the difference between a redeemable local currency and a 10% off coupon in the local paper is that the redeemable local currency provides a gentle mechanism to encourage local businesses to trade with one another — the local business gets to keep that 10% if they can spend a PLENTY earned with another local business. The long-term, recurring nature of that stimulus will encourage folks to find local suppliers, while convertibility preserves short-term viability.
So even with convertibility, the PLENTY sign means at least a desire to buy locally as much as possible — and if you’re a local supplier, a business that accepts PLENTYs will much prefer spending them with you as opposed to trading them back into FRNs.
BJ
p.s. – Regarding your question… with our membership drive and re-launch, the old PLENTYs will be convertible into new PLENTYs for a period of time at par (1 old PLENTY = 10 new PLENTYs = $10). This conversion is being paid for by the folks at Piedmont Biofuels, who have already been driving the PLENTY’s existing circulation by using a portion of their dollar income to buy back PLENTYs for distribution with their payroll on a regular basis.
BJ,
What are the legal tax implications when using a barter system? What about for employees being paid in a local currency? This gets to the heart of the issue.
Jon
Jon — Regarding barter: the IRS claims a share of ALL your individual revenue, regardless of how it is paid: Federal Reserve Notes, PLENTYs, chickens, or backrubs. In short, if it meets the definition of “income”, you must assign a value to it in dollars for tax purposes.
Soapbox moment: note that I first said “revenue”, not “income”. From an accounting perspective, the personal income tax on wages is ONLY a tax on “income” if one assumes the cost of your time is zero. Since every hour you give up in exchange for salary places you one hour closer to dying, that’s a dubious assumption at best. It’s much better to be born a corporation, where you are only taxed on your revenue minus expenses. That’s an “income tax.”
Here is a recent and entertaining blog post detailing the IRS’ views on barter:
http://globaleconomicanalysis......ssion.html
In short, nothing changes — you must declare all your revenue for tax purposes, and any barter currency must have an exchange rate with Federal Reserve Notes.
For specific logistical guidance on paying employees in a local currency and using local currency with your accounting system, the BerkShare Web site has a useful presentation:
http://www.berkshares.org/accountingseminar.htm
I also invite you to contact our Executive Director Melissa Frey to be connected with other businesses paying in PLENTYs, or Pittsboro accountant Corinne Dunn for more specific guidance.