Let's compete with the system ourselves!
How a New Money Might Become Established
But there is a limit to the extent to which governments can control, either
morally, legally or practically, the accounting practices and trading conventions
of private enterprisers. Herein lies the key to the liberation of exchange. As
Hayek puts it:
“The exclusive right to issue the tokens that serve as legal tender for
the discharge of obligations contracted in terms of them does not
preclude the use of credit accounts in other units as a general means
of exchange. … The difference would be that the accounts would be
denominated in terms of monetary units over which governments had
no control and which, therefore, would be likely to maintain a constant
value.” (ibid p. 330) (emphasis added)
“…once credit accounts in a stable unit are provided by some institutions,
governments could hardly prevent the development of credit cards that,
with the consent of both parties, instantly converted the amount due in
a local currency into its equivalent, at the current rate, of a stable unit.
Debtor and creditor would know that a certain amount of purchasing
power would be due by or to them within a fixed period.
Although governments would probably long resist the use within their territory of
any hand-to-hand money other than their own, they could hardly long
prevent such use of credit cards. I have little doubt that as soon as such
stable private units were available, the issuers of credit cards would
be well advised to use them. Indeed, I believe that it will be through
the credit card rather than through any kind of circulating token money
that the government monopoly of the issue of money will ultimately be
broken. It is a money governments cannot confiscate when it is carried
across frontiers and scarcely even when claims in terms of it are held
by the recipient.” (ibid p. 333)
Recognizing now that money is merely information, it becomes clear that a private
alternative monetary unit could easily be defined at any time. All it would take
is for an individual or group to publish its definition. The next step in the use of
such money would simply amount to keeping accounts in terms of the new unit.
This would pose little difficulty since the value of any existing currency could
be converted according to the definition, just as foreign currencies are equated to
one another now. Traders agreeing to keep their accounts and draw contracts in
terms of the new unit could also agree to settle their accounts periodically using
established legal tender money, the value of which would probably be declining
over time relative to the new stable monetary unit. For this reason, they would
probably eventually find some better means of settling their accounts, one which
does not require them to go into the market for official currency, the value of
which is beyond their control.
http://circ2.home.mindspring.com/Money_and_Debt_Part1_lo.PDF
http://circ2.home.mindspring.com/Money_and_Debt_Part2_lo.PDF
http://circ2.home.mindspring.com/Money_and_Debt_Part3_lo.PDF
Pie in the sky? Not when you think about it!
