Johnny BeBarter

Last night, we continued through our DVD queue by watching Johnny Belinda, a 1948 movie for which Jane Wyman won an Academy Award.  Wyman plays a young deaf and dumb (dated movie, eh?) woman who finds a doctor that brings out her potential, only for her to be attacked by the town drunk, has a child, and becomes the village pariah and scandal.  But one of the subplots grabbed my attention:  Lew Ayers’ character, the doctor, is burning bridges in the town by not always accepting bartered goods for his services.

We all learned about bartering in junior high social studies:  trading goods and services for . . . goods and services.  We heard about it again in the 1990s when Russia and some other former Soviet Bloc countries were in such bad economic shape that people would trade pipes for . . . plutonium?

But now there are some in the green community who are looking to barter as a way of building wealth.  Instead of using cash, folks trade their goods, and receive needed goods, or credits.  There are plenty of sites out there, and I’m getting my head wrapped around why this is slowly catching on.  Some feel burned by Wall Street; others see it as a way of reducing the purchase of unwanted “stuff;” others want to liberate themselves from items they just don’t need; some see this as a way of building skills or getting services they couldn’t otherwise afford.  Green Barter, based in Vermont, promotes itself by telling its customers that they can save cash, increase merchandise turnover, and find a creative way to increase their customer base.

So pay attention in your local communities:  during these tough economic times, it could be a way to get tasks around the house done, or getting goods and services your business may not be able to afford.  Whether this will be scaled and have any economic impact, however, is another story.