In short, airline miles have become a corporate ‘scrip’, a complementary currency
with a specific commercial objective (customer loyalty). They mobilize the
otherwise unused resource of an empty airline chair to achieve that aim.
Creating Social Wealth Many other complementary currencies have a social purpose, rather than a purely
business one. One example from Japan is directly relevant for the healthcare field.
The Japanese has the fastest aging population in the world. Today over 1.8 million
Japanese need daily care, and it is estimated that the number of such dependent
people is going to double over the next decade. Simultaneously, the younger
generations have moved away from family homes in much greater numbers than
any previous generations.
Enter the Japanese Fureai Kippu (literally “Caring Relationship Tickets”).
These electronic “tickets” are paid in a computerized savings account to
individuals who help elderly or handicapped with any aspects of their care that the
Japanese national healthcare system doesn’t cover: services in their own homes
for food or the daily bath (a ritual in Japan), help in shopping or food preparation
so that they can stay longer in their own home, reading to blind people, etc.
The unit of account of the Fureai Kippu is the hour of service. There are different
rates applied to different services (e.g. one hour of shopping or reading is credited
with one Fureai Kippu, but help in body care is valued at two Fureai Kippu for
each hour of service). These Fureai Kippu can be saved for the individual’s own
use in the future, or transferred to someone of their choice, typically a parent or
family member who lives elsewhere in the country and who needs similar help.
Currently, some 374 non-profit organizations in Japan are issuing and participating
in exchanging across the country Fureai Kippu through two computerized clearing
houses, the whole being loosely coordinated by the Sawayaka Healthcare
Foundation. Because the elderly now have a support system at their own home,
the time when they have to be moved to expensive retirement homes can be
significantly postponed, and the period they are spending in hospitals after a
medical problem can also be much shorter.
All this reduces dramatically the costs to society of elderly care, while actually
improving the quality of life of the elderly themselves. Finally, this system creates
a resource flow that does not rely on government subsidies or bureaucracy,
expensive insurance, or even national currency to function. The transferability of
the Fureai Kippu makes them a form of elderly care medium of exchange, a
specialized complementary currency that functions in parallel with the national
currency.
1 See a full development of this approach in Lietaer, B. The Future of Money (London: Random House,
2001) and Lietaer, B & Belgin, S. Of human Wealth: New Currencies for a New World (Boulder, CO:
Citerra Press, 2006).
2 Total volume of outstanding Frequent Flyer Miles is estimated at 14 Trillion, worth about US$ 700
Billion. See Jenni Roth “Die schlummernde Weltwährung: Fluggäste haben 14 Billionen Bonusmeilen
angesammelt” Der Tagespiegel (Jan. 17, 2005) . The Federal Reserve estimates that there are 650 Billion
US$ circulating in bills, two thirds of which are circulating outside the US.
3
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