Healthy Money Healthy Planet: Developing Sustainability Through New Money Systems

Description

"Deirdre Kent's book should be read by everyone concerned about social justice and the survival of the planet and humanity." Prue Hyman, Victoria University
Healthy Money, Healthy Planet offers some solutions to a range of environmental and social problems throughout the world. The pressure for continuing economic growth has caused widespread environmental damage from the overuse of natural resources and destruction of habitats. Social problems are created by rapidly increasing debt in the form of mortgages, credit cards and student loans, and concentration of wealth and power. In order to reverse this trend and help to develop more sustainable communities, Healthy Money, Healthy Planet looks at complementary economies and monetary systems which have been tried in various countries, including New Zealand, and suggests how they could be implemented in the future. These include changes to the taxation system, community banking, commercial barter, voucher schemes and currencies with a cirulation incentive.
Deirdre Kent is a New Zealand environmental and social activist in the coastal settlement of Waikanae, north of the capital. She is a trustee of Living Economies, an organisation set up to inform people how the money system we have inherited contributes to worldwide environmental and social problems, and to promote monetary literacy to avert further degradation.