New types of money are popping up across Mid-Michigan and supporters say, it’s not counterfeit, but rather a competing currency. Right now, you can buy a meal or visit a chiropractor without using actual U.S. legal tender.
They sound like real money and look like real money. But you can’t take them to the bank because they’re not made at a government mint. They’re made at private mints. “I sell three or four every single day and then I get one or two back a week,” said Dave Gillie, owner of Gillies Coney Island Restaurant in Genesee Township.
Gillie also accepts silver, gold, copper and other precious metals to pay for food. He says, if he wanted to, he could accept marbles. “Do people have to accept dollars or money? No, they don’t,” Gillie said. “They can accept anything they want or they can refuse to accept anything.”
He’s absolutely right. The U.S. Treasury Department says the Coinage Act of 1965 says “private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash, unless there is a state law which says otherwise.” That allows gas stations to say they don’t accept 50- or $100 bills after a certain time of day in hopes of not getting robbed.
“This establishment accepts any form of silver, gold, chicken, apple pie, if someone works it out with me,” said Jeff Kotchounian of Deerfield Chiropractic. “I’ve taken many things.”
Is there a box for chickens on the tax forms?
Everyone knows barter = avoiding taxes thats why it’s advantageous over using something tractable for payments.
It’s not illegal, but the barter system is a lost art since the state and feds don’t get a cut from the transactions as they normally do.
Heck, drug dealers could be “legal” if it was taxed.
Even in online MMO’s have their own currencies that are exchanged back and forth with “real money” including foreign currency (euros, pounds, yen, etc).
They let the Liberty Dollars go on for years, and the IRS even had commented that they were fine with them. Then after they really started to gain traction, they changed their mind and raided their mint.
http://wnd.com/?pageId=44586
They probably will not like this either, even though they do not seem to mind areas of the country near the borders who regularly accept foreign currency. So if this alternative currency is printed overseas, is it OK? What is next, will they crack down on bartering on craigslist?
Perfectly legal.
There are areas here that use a similar “barter system,” and I know plenty of people who use these “barter bucks.”
I’d certainly like to mail the tax people 22% of a chicken I took in payment eight months ago.
There is nothing illegal about barter, and those local bills make that bartering easier. What is illegal is if the folks who took part in that bartering fail to report the income/revenue (in dollar equivalents) on their tax forms.
Basically aren’t coupons used as money?
There’s a reason for that old saying “Don’t take any wooden nickels”
If they think the $ is too volatile, wait till this fad is over.
I think money was invented to make fraud easier. It’s hard to misrepresent a cow or half a beef or a chicken, but our fractional lending system and crooked bankers can make your money disappear every time only to end up in their accounts.
Remember, the government is the problem, not the solution.
I just went to the doctor with my payment-chicken and they wouldn’t even let it into the waiting room.
So much for conservative healthcare reform!
The IRS allows barter. Once you run out of money, they seize your assets to pay your taxes.
I was at an American Legion one where they took chips as currency. A white one was worth a drink. A blue one was worth 5 drinks. I think they instituted it so people could buy drinks for people who had too many and they could drink it the next time instead of getting too drunk.
I also had a friend of mine trade a chainmail shirt for half the cost of a new roof on his house.
And prisoners pay each other in cartons of cigarettes, or at least they did in Don’t be a Menace While Drinking Your Juice in South Central.
Don’t knock the barter system.
From the article:
Jeff Kotchounian says he’s used this Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver to get $25 worth of gas from a local station.
There you go. I think that tells you what their ideology is…
#13. Yep, end the Fed…..a great idea, thank’s for your support!
As a couple of others pointed out, barter to your little heart’s content. At the end of the day though you still have to declare the value to the IRS. And the IRS only takes US currency.
MISSION STATEMENT:
The Anacostia Hours Inc. is committed to establishing a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community self-reliance in ways that will support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations.
GOALS:
We will work to promote this mission by fostering a local money supply in ways which would:
http://www.anacostiahours.org/faq
Actually, local currency is legal and lots of cities and towns have it to stimulate local buying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States
I agree… the problem will be if Mr. Gillie doesn’t declare his income.
Why exchange your money for other paper on a value-for-value basis?
It is the same value, but the new paper could be worthless in an instant.
Try paying the unions with that money.
#12
It is not smokes any more it is Mack.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122290720439096481.html
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Well, we have a lot of people in Michigan with goods and services to offer, and most people have little or no Fed Reserve Notes.
Necessity is the mother of invention. From what I’ve seen of Michigan, without barter and local currencies, the local economy would be in even worse shape than it already is.
Besides, when a small number of people have hoarded all of the money and are refusing to even -lend- it out, let alone -hire- people and spread it around that way, what are we supposed to do? Starve? Sit at home and do nothing?
#15 Ralph said, “And the IRS only takes US currency.”
Not true. The IRS will happily seize your assets if you have no money available.
Hey, at least it’s not a bad as N.Korea. Leave them be!
You have to take a closer look at the laws and you’ll find that not paying your income taxes is not illegal. The Constitution only allows for excise taxes which the consumer never really sees except for in the price of the product they buy. So to claim that other forms of currency and bartering is illegal is completely false. The IRS and the Government only criminalize those who choose not to pay as a way to bully others to pay up.
“The Constitution only allows for excise taxes…” (#24, Victoria)
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” – Sixteenth Amendment