A Bartering Economy For Greece
As Greece has been desperately trying to cope with an increasingly worrisome economic downturn, citizens are becoming frantic for any type of alternative, as there is really no money to purchase necessities with.
Bartering is becoming increasingly popular for Greeks, as a means for making it economically. With essentially no money to buy, bartering has become a better-than-nothing alternative. Although the recently re-elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is concerned about the alternative economy, it has seemed to be working for the most part. Electricians fix houses in trade for cooking supplies and food, while babysitters work for graphic T-shirts. With Greece having such a liquidity issue, online bartering has become the even more modernized form of informal bartering. In virtual trading, "Tradenow" has become an online economy with it's own currency called "Tradepoints". One Tradepoint is equivalent to one Euro. This has been working for the Grecians as they can offer all goods and services they have in exchange for survival necessities.
The fact that the bartering is online has proved to be efficient for everyone going through the system. A strong efficiency in a growing economic system could be a positive sign for future economic growth. Also, the online activity could potentially generate new work and business, promoting innovation and ideas. People feel safer using an online trading system that doesn't go through insecure banks and capital controls. Citizens can feel more secure in having faith in a new system, that works around a crashing economy. Although this solution may not be lasting, it poses the opportunity to navigate uncertainty while the Greek economy is still deteriorating and political volatility stands.
However, there are ground reasons for why trade faded out as a medium of exchange in the past. A traditional form of medium of exchange must be durable, portable/convenient, standardized, and divisible.There is certainly room for inefficiencies to arise in the future. (For example, how will we gauge what matches value to certain services?) Is this economic system really plausible for modern day, even in the midst of a failing economy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/international/trading-meat-for-tires-as-bartering-economy-grows-in-greece.html?ref=economy
2 comments:
While it does not surprise, I definitely find it interesting that bartering has become so widespread in Greece. As an alternative solution until the larger issues get worked out, I suppose this works as a viable choice. However, I do not see bartering becoming a more entrenched medium of exchange. In a globalized society that supplies goods and services through similar and valued medium of exchange, it would be difficult to translate the value between Greece's new medium and those of other countries around the world. Even domestically, deciding the value of certain goods and services in comparison to others can become tricky - the value of one good or service may be different from one person to the next.
It is quite drastic that Greece may be turning to a bartering economy considering how non-existent this is in first-world countries. The prospect of this happening places no faith in the Greek economy and renders them as doomed to go back in time. It is possible that this could work in the interim for Greece to help get them back on their feet, but it is not probable.
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