Perth too

Feel free to contact Perth LETS for information.

Plenty of LETS groups alive and thriving in Australia

There are lots of LETS groups in Australia, I am in Central Coast LETS which has trading meetups around once a month. One at Woy Woy Environment Centre this Sunday, come along and check it out!

Nice news

I told an elderly Greek friend about this today. It was the happiest chat we've had about Greece and Europe for ages. I suggested that her family in another area get involved. They could always go to Volos once a month and do some exchanges. Better than seeing people miserable- if you don't have work, bake some goods and exchange them for real products. Perhaps others could migrate to the Volos area and live there- the land of milk and honey (and eggs and potatoes and cakes-yum).

People Power

What a GREAT story. After the anger and despair of so many in Greece, TEM enables people to take back control of their lives. It enables them to be producers and to take part in the local economy. We had a similar system in Wagga Wagga, but closed it because we were too few, and did not have the economic need. TEM overcomes the limitations of bartering (if I have vegies and want a chair, I no longer need to find reciprocal needs). Not a total solution, but a huge step.

A way to live a little bit better

Well i'll talk on a different basis as i live here.. One of the biggest problems in Greece is the huge wasting of money. A way to cover them money "holes" is by increasing the taxes in order to get more. I'm the one who owns the restaurant u saw on the video. When you have a government that takes 55% in total of the money you get as a bussiness owner well its difficult to survive.. TEM helps people! i am a member and i see it every single day.

TEM and Tax

TEM will not help Greece to survive its current crisis. TEM is not contributing to their nation's tax base and the repayment of the national debt. This seems to be an extension of their failure to pay appropriate tax which caused their problem in the first place. Only a huge drop in the standard of living will enable the government to provide at least some welfare relief for those who have no job. It is time for all the cheating to end.

Together!

Bravo Volos! This is one of the best solutions to the global economic crisis: banding together in communal support, rather than families being split apart, chasing the elusive higher dollar - or dollars at all - for survival. But would this truly take off in Australia? Back in the 90s I joined a similar community program called LETS, just outside Kingaroy. Centrelink cut my partial benefits for bartering, claiming it robs others of a working opportunity for income. Which of us were the robbers?

Response Ability

i think it takes disaster and going without, in the western world of too- much- of- everything, before the majority of people wake up to realising and remembering there is a better way.Poor communities even within the 'developed' world, have and still operate the barter system, utilising and exchanging skills, for survival every day.