Weekend Economists Salute Ruin July 3-5, 2015

[Demeter]

15. BARTER IS BACK

...The most important thing has been the local exchange trading system, the TEM, a form of barter system introduced by Volos residents because so many people were struggling to afford items in euros.

In the three years since I have been trading in TEM, by offering English and guitar lessons, second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac, I have earned and spent 9,500 TEM.

One TEM is equivalent to one euro but scarcer goods and services within the TEM network become more important and then there is no price control so people can charge what they want. To get an idea of the costs and what’s available, I had a week’s holiday with my two children last summer on Mount Pelion, north-east of Volos, which cost 270 TEM and e30.

I had two years of shiatsu massage at 20 TEM a session. I also buy lots of our family’s clothes and shoes with TEM and regularly buy ready-meals with it.

Last winter I carpeted our home with rugs to insulate it and that cost me 250 TEM. Just yesterday I bought a pair of sunglasses for 15 TEM and earlier in the week I paid a woman to clean the balconies in our home. She stayed four hours and I paid her 24 TEM.

In two weeks we will be spending a weekend in a village on Pelion and attending a workshop on sustainable economics. I will pay approximately 150 TEM for my family to join me. In the afternoons we will go down to the Aegean and swim until evening and return to a delicious meal...