Vision for a Prosperous City

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Together, we can create a city where anyone who wants work can trade their skills, knowledge, talent, and services for a local currency, prosperity is accessible to everyone, and poverty is ended (20.7% in Fairfield as of 2024).

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Purpose of Production

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The purpose of production is consumption. When we compare America the manufacturer with America the shopper we find that the manufacturer can produce but the shopper cannot buy. Our trouble is not over-production but under-consumption, which results from a chronic shortage of buying-power. At any given moment the amount of money in our pockets is insufficient to buy the total output of in­dustry.

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Why Can't the Shopper Buy?

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​If suppliers, manufacturers, and farmers have goods and services that go unsold because there is insufficient money in circulation, both suppliers and consumers suffer. The economic system should deliver goods and services as needed for consumption.

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Bernard Lietaer, architect of the European currency, said: "We can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. ..." Beyond Greed and Scarcity

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Cause of "The Gap": See here.

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​​​The Remedy: Increase the Currency

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People thrive through the exchange of their skills and services. The abundant FairFunds currency will reemploy idle individuals, allowing them to trade their skills, knowledge, and services, for tangible currency. Scarce dollars will be hoarded for necessities not available locally; abundant FairFunds will look for places to be spent - people will trade their skills, knowledge, and services for it. Producers will have no shortage of customers, and anyone who wishes to work will have the opportunity to do so. This approach aims to eliminate poverty in Fairfield. ​

 

​Consider a shopping mall stuffed with goods, but there are not enough customers with money to buy the goods. With insufficient money, suppliers can’t sell their goods, and customers can’t buy them – they both lose out.

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The solution is to increase the money supply to consume the goods and satisfy the consumer’s demand. 

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What the Renaissance of the 13th Century was Like

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Bernard Lietaer also explained that the time from 1150 to 1250 was a time of extraordinary developments, a period of economic prosperity such as we have difficulty imagining nowadays.

 

The working class seldom had fewer than four courses at lunch or dinner and enjoyed three to four meals a day. ... The number of work hours per day was limited. ... “Between the 11th and 13th century, the Western world experiences a high level of prosperity that is reflected concretely by a demographic expansion without precedent in history” [fn316]. ... “The time from 1150 to 1250 was a time of extraordinary developments, a period of economic prosperity such as we have difficulty imagining nowadays” [fn317]. ... “One can only be impressed by the extraordinary vitality and power of the changes that occurred during those three centuries. Whether one considers the demography, the urbanization, the techniques, the relationships between labor and money, every one of these aspects of society was completely revolutionized… One will have to wait five hundred years to live another wave of transformation of that scale: the capitalist Industrial Revolution” [fn318]. ... The German historian Fritz Schwartz summarized it well: “No difference between the farmhouse and castle” [fn347].

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... there is now general consensus that an era of highly unusual prosperity started around the 10th century and collapsed after the 13th century. ... It is important to notice that all of these trends culminate around the year 1300 and are followed by a sudden collapse and regression thereafter, often for several centuries. 

 

The Mystery of Money, Bernard Lietaer, p. 148-152.

Note: fnxxx refers to the footnote in the citation.

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What Caused the Renaissance, and the Collapse?

 

It was the result of the currency in use. Every 6 years or so the king would recall the coin and give 3 pennies for every 4 taken in, a 25% tax. This tax by re-coinage replaced normal taxes. When you knew that the king was going to take 25% of your coin sooner or later, you were not going to hold on to it, you circulated it. It circulated like a hot potato perhaps a hundred times faster than normal. And it created a huge amount of economic activity and put everyone to work, the cause of the Renaissance. The Mystery of Money, Bernard Lietaer, p. 118. 

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The economic collapse of the 13th century was preceded and accompanied by a significant shift in the monetary system. The Mystery of Money, p. 172.

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How the Currency Works

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Now that we know the cause of the Renaissance, we can duplicate it.

​​​​FairFunds functions as a stamp-scrip, as explained by Irving Fisher in his book Stamp Scrip. Modeled after the Chiemgauer, FairFunds can only be spent in a three month window, after which they become invalid and must be renewed by purchasing and attaching a stamp to each scrip to renew it. The cost of the stamp is 2% of the face value. This process pays for the scrip, increases circulation, and prevents hoarding to make the currency effective.

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FairFunds will look something like this:

 

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The stamp can be purchased from any non-profit selling stamps, costing 2% of the face value of the scrip (paid in dollars). This pays for the scrip. Scrip will be available in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20. Between the first of each quarter, using the scrip incurs no additional cost. The scrip must be renewed on the first, so spend it before then! A redemption fund will allow scrip to be redeemed for dollars at a cost of 5%. Stamp scrip (demurrage) explained here, and a technical paper here.

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​Stamps can be used for change, or the seller can keep a balance and issue a credit for future purchases. Redeemable in dollars by the issuer (the City) for a fee of 5% of the face value, plus the next stamp.​

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Read the "economic miracle of Woergl" known internationally. 

For examples of other local currencies, see Complementary Currencies.  

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To learn how to use FairFunds, see How to Use.

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Why Merchants Need Fairfunds

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Instead of buying from a big box store, people will go where the FairFunds are accepted. If a merchant has more product than buyers, FairFunds will allow consumers to purchase more of the producers products. This increases the local money supply and circulation which does not leave town. 

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Some Applications

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1. Buy Fairfield First Rewards: Every time someone spends FairFunds at a participating local business, they earn a small percentage back in FairFunds. This creates a permanent incentive to buy locally rather than from large online retailers.

2. Community Improvement Fund: Residents vote each year on projects they want completed—parks, trails, murals, youth programs, neighborhood cleanup, tree planting, community gardens, or public art. Workers and volunteers are paid partly in FairFunds, allowing projects that would otherwise exceed the city's cash budget to become achievable.

3. Local Businesses: Businesses can offer a 5–20% discount when customers pay partially or entirely in FairFunds. Businesses gain new customers and increased sales during slow periods while keeping more dollars circulating within Fairfield.

4. Restaurants and Cafés: Restaurants can accept FairFunds during slower hours or on designated "Community Days." Empty tables produce no revenue, so accepting FairFunds increases business without displacing full-paying customers.

5. Arts and Entertainment: Musicians, artists, theaters, and galleries can accept FairFunds for performances, workshops, and admission. This gives local artists another source of income while making arts more affordable.

6. Educational Classes: Teachers can offer classes in cooking, languages, music, woodworking, computer skills, gardening, or financial literacy in exchange for FairFunds. This creates an ongoing marketplace for sharing knowledge.

7. Child Care and Elder Care: Parents and caregivers can earn FairFunds by providing child care, transportation, companionship, shopping assistance, or home visits for seniors. This strengthens neighborhood relationships while helping families.

8. Home Gardening and Food Production: Residents can earn FairFunds by growing vegetables, fruit, herbs, seedlings, compost, or eggs for neighbors. Community gardens could also reward volunteers with FairFunds.

9. Youth Employment: Teenagers can earn FairFunds by mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, washing windows, pet sitting, tutoring younger students, or helping seniors with technology. It provides work experience and teaches responsibility.

10. Community Beautification: Residents can earn FairFunds for planting flowers, maintaining public gardens, removing litter, painting over graffiti, restoring parks, and improving public spaces.

11. Community Festivals: Admission, food vendors, games, and local crafts at festivals could all accept FairFunds, encouraging people to spend locally and creating immediate circulation.

12. Local Transportation: ​Drivers willing to provide rides to medical appointments, grocery stores, or community events could accept FairFunds, helping those with limited transportation.

13. Housing Rehabilitation: Community volunteers and skilled tradespeople can renovate abandoned or deteriorating properties using FairFunds for part of the labor. As neighborhoods improve, property values and civic pride increase.

14. Business-to-Business Trading: Local businesses often have excess inventory or unused service capacity. FairFunds allow businesses to trade advertising, printing, accounting, landscaping, office supplies, maintenance, and professional services without requiring scarce cash.

15. Employee Bonuses: Businesses can provide part of employee bonuses or recognition awards in FairFunds, encouraging employees to shop locally and strengthening the local economy.

16. Tourism: Visitors can purchase FairFunds as a souvenir or to receive discounts at participating merchants. Many visitors may even keep some FairFunds as a collectible, effectively donating value to the local economy.

17. Community Investment: Residents could purchase FairFunds in advance to finance specific community projects such as playgrounds, walking trails, public art, or neighborhood improvements. As the FairFunds circulate, they continue supporting local commerce.

18. Emergency Community Relief: During economic downturns, natural disasters, or temporary unemployment, FairFunds can help mobilize volunteers and maintain local trade when cash is scarce.

19. Healthcare and Wellness: Massage therapists, fitness instructors, yoga teachers, nutrition coaches, counselors, and wellness practitioners could accept FairFunds for a portion of their fees, making preventive care more accessible.

20. The Renaissance Store: We can open a store (the “Renaissance Store” or "FairFunds Store") similar to the Good Will store where donations, old items, art, and collectibles are sold for Currency. This will give additional value to the Currency, and fund the currency management.

21. Local Farmers: When farmers accept a portion of FairFunds for their crops, people will buy from them instead of buying at big box stores. It promotes Buy Fairfield First. It will provide an outlet to spend FairFunds. Farmers can convert any excess FairFunds they can't spend, into dollars for 5%.

22. Volunteers: FairFunds can be used to pay volunteers to do community service; e.g., teach elders computer skills, teach youth special knowledge, e.g. civics, law, engineering, grow food, pay kids to clean up trash on the streets etc. Those projects that would not fit in the city’s budget, can now fit with the FairFunds.

23. Support of Charities: Non-profits can buy 100 FairFunds at the price of $97, and sell them to their members for $100 earning $3 per 100 FairFunds that they sell. Consumers can buy FairFunds from the non-profit they want to support, and then buy goods from local merchants, thereby supporting the non-profit. Local businesses can accept FairFunds as equivalent to dollars, and spend them to buy groceries from other businesses, or convert into dollars at a cost of 5%. This will improve the businesses' image by supporting community activities, and increasing their turnover.

24. Home and Car Maintenance: The numerous worn out houses and cars in need of maintenance can be repaired by skilled workers willing to accept payment in FairFunds. This will beautify Fairfield, and increase house property values.​

25. Fund Organic Farms: Fund organic farms capable of feeding the whole Fairfield community. This will also protect from a dollar collapse.