Below are two articles that look at non-credit card money systems. The Wired article ends up talking mostly about PayPal and other digital currency, while the Yes! article examines local and regional currencies like BerkShares. Some of the comments on the Wired article bring up interesting points about the potential inflation of digital currency and the difficulty of maintaining a stable value. BerkShares offers the opposite of PayPal: physical currency that is only accepted in a limited region. Between these two articles, questions arise about convenience of exchange, the role of money in society, and how to chip away at the credit card dynasties.
The Wired article includes a short history of the current credit card system: "Until the late 1950s, each card was usually tied to a single bank or merchant, limiting its usefulness and resulting in a walletload of unique cards. But when BankAmericard — later renamed Visa — offered to split its fees with other banks, those banks began to offer Visa cards to their customers, and merchants began accepting Visa as a way to drive sales." And so on. You've probably used alternative currencies and systems - did you have a college ID card with declining balance points or meals on it? That's just a checking account (that you can't withdraw from) and a debit card, and Visa is not involved. Sure, it's a limited economy, but it is similar to pre-credit cards when each bank had its own card. Anyway, check out the articles:
The Future of Money: It's Flexible, Fast, and (Almost) Free
by Daniel Roth, Wired Magazine March 2010
"An army of engineers and entrepreneurs is rushing in, hoping to do to the payment world what has already been done to the music, movie, and publishing businesses — unseat a legacy industry built on access and distribution, drive the costs to zero, undercut the traditional middlemen, and unleash a wave of innovation."
A Day in the Life of a Berkshare: How a Regional Currency Works
by Bill McKibben, Yes! Magazine Oct. 18 2010
"The currency is literally teaching people to think more carefully about how their habits build or erode community. It's about creating trust in a world where economists have taught us that we're self-interested individuals and nothing more."
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