[WS:] The poor here pay sales tax, no? OTOH, based on the way VAT is collected (i.e. paid by the producer and passed on the buyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax#Implementation ), barter does not lead to the avoidance of VAT, but it does eliminate sales tax, which is collected at the point of sale to the final consumer. That may explain why the local authorities in Greece saw no problem with barter. It would probably be a different story on this side of the pond.
Jordan:
> I'm frankly not sure what the point of such a system is; imagine they used
> Euro instead of Tem. Then what? Well, someone could sell their soap and
> oil ... and just leave! Without buying something from the other people at
> the market. I don't see how it changes anything.
[WS:] I think it has the effect similar to government fiscal policy - it increases the purchasing power and thus aggregate demand in times of downturn. I am not sure what the effect of individuals may be, but if they are not very mobile to begin with that effect is probably negligible. And taking their Tems outside their community would be like trying to redeem Target coupons at Walmart, no?
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."