Lesson 24 – Easy money

Warm Up

1. How do you usually pay when you buy something?
2. Do you know another way to pay for things (trading and exchange)?

Main Activity

1. You are going to read about Local Exchange Trading Schemes and guess the answer to the question. Then you will be put in groups of three or four, with each group being all the same letter.
2. Your teacher will give you one sheet. You have to read the text. You can ask for help from your teacher if you do not understand.
3. Discuss the text again, make notes, write the most important information, and answer the questions.
   
4. Your teacher will put you in a group of at least three, so each group has a person who has read the text, e.g. ABC, ABC, ABC. Your group has to tell each other about your text. you have to work based on your notes
5. Your teacher will check your answer. Then you will discuss other advantages, possible problems from L.E.T.S., and suggestions for what you might do or make.

Follow Up

• In groups, you have to plan a L.E.T.S. You should think about:
  – Where you have the central bank, and who would be the banker a name for it
  – What money you will use
  – Who you will ask to join
  – What kind of things you will want people to sell prices; the cost of different things
  – How much you will pay for the banker
  – Other information
• Your group have to make an advertising poster for your scheme with relevant and necessary information.
• Exercises
  Listen to the audio and answer the questions.
  

A
Local Exchange Trading Schemes (L.E.T.S.) do not make money, but they help people to help themselves and help each other. They are very good for local areas, and people welcome them. L.E.T.S. are becoming very popular. There are more than 200 in the UK, and some of them have hundreds of members. None of them are exactly the same because different people have-different ideas. But they all offer their members many advantages. L.E.T.S. are very friendly. Members meet new people and make new friends. People learn to use their free time
better. An important advantage is that people without any money can still buy things. They can still pay other people to do things for them too. People do not have to pay a bank to borrow money.
– So what do L.E.TS. do, and how do they do it?

B
You and your friends or neighbours might not have a lot of money to spend, but you are rich in other ways. Everyone has lots of abilities; we all have things that we can do. Some of us are experts in special subjects. For example, we might be doctors or artists. Others are good at simpler things like cooking or decorating. Maybe we can only do easy things like cleaning, but we all have something we can exchange with other people. And we all need each other’s help, but of course, life is always difficult. For example, my neighbour is a hairdresser and I
can cook fantastic cakes. Unfortunately, he does not like sweet foods, so I can not get a haircut. So I need to find a third person who likes cakes, a person who has got something the hairdresser wants. Then perhaps all three of us can do an exchange together. It will not be easy!
– We need an easier way to exchange things, but how?

C
Have you ever thought of making your own money? Do not think of dollars or euros; invent and use your own money. You can call your money anything you like, for example, a Pop, and ask other people to join you in the ‘Pops Trading Club’. You get Pops by doing something for someone; they pay you in Pops. You can spend your Pops on something that someone else does or makes for you. You do not need coins or notes, but you do need a central bank. This can be a telephone answering machine where people can leave messages about their
exchanges. The Pops Trading Club banker listens to the messages and puts all the information into a computer, so everyone knows how many Pops they have got. The club pays the banker in Pops for the work they do. Simple!
– So how big are these trading clubs, and are they successful?