Barter System In Each State

[GTR-N1]

I've been with SAU for nearly a year. And I'm aware that members being the enthusiasts that they are here, would do just about anything to keep their car/s.

I've owned a business for 37 years and have been through 3 recessions and survived unscathed. I am not an economist or a financial planner. But if I needed help from one to be able to keep my second-most important material asset, I would consider...

SAU Forums with their "SAU BARTERING SYSTEM" in each state across the country (and each NZ/Japan island could have one too)!!

The 'System' is run on a total 'Honesty' basis and it could run like this...

1) A new currency is formed on this forum called a "SAU" pronounced "sow"

2) 1X "SAU" earned = 1X Hour that a fellow SAUer works to keep the troubled car going. Onlookers earn nothing. The advantage here is to by-pass mechanics who will still charge AU$

3) 1X "SAU" is worth 100X AU$ (since SAU means Skylines Australia and the AU$ should be the base currency for "SAU" credits)

Therefore spare parts during an 'official recession' (3 consecutive months of -ve growth) can be swapped or paid for in "SAU"s or cash

4) An official SAU thread in each state can list each member's skills on offer

5) An official SAU thread in each state can list each member's "SAU" credits

6) When a recession is officially over, a member who has the most "SAU"s (or 'sow's) has 1st pecking order on items F/S

Take the 1988 Recession. It looked like this (and correct me if you are a Economics/Commerce grad)...

i) 1988 stock market crashed after years of greed, overnight money market investments (for just hours) and off-shore lending

ii) 1989 banks wouldn't lend to each other because they couldn't trust each other

iii) 1989 some banks folded overseas and here in Oz, Building Societies were getting gobbled up by banks. Even some banks like Rural & National Mutual & Advance were taken over

iv) 1990 Credit squeeze meant that money was in short supply for lending

v) 1990 many homes were lost to institutions who in turn, flogged them off cheap

vi) 1990 Recession > Inflation > Further Credit Squeeze > Stagflation

vii) 1991 Gold prices went sky-high

viii) After 1992, gold prices came down, recession was over, banks loosened purse strings little by little, only the cashed-up bought shares again.

My questions are..

Is it worth planning for?

How else can we minimise collateral damage and not lose SAU members?

How can we keep admin. to a minimum?

How soon should State Execs call simultaneous meetings?

Sorry if I appear alarmist or that my ideas are pure fantasy. I just know that a Blue Mountains based BARTER organisation called "LENDS" was used as a model for others to create a 'Lending Tree' or 'Barter System' for tough times. Many survivors have come out of 'LENDS' that would have gone under, by bartering eggs, veg's, carpentry skills, counselling etc.

I just felt that SAU could do the same with the huge base that it has.

And it could be the first car forum to do so & help members save their cars!

Well, I've rabbited on too long -sorry guys!

Tez

[Swiper the Fox]

Great idea Terry...i helped a fellow SAU'er out on Saturday...he was getting a tune at Turbotechnics and i thought id go over and have a squizz...he broke the pins on his Nistune board when removing it from his ECU...i ran around town for a couple of hours to obtain some electronic components and reparied it back at the workshop allowing the car to be tuned. Then when he had a coolant hose blow on the dyno i organised a towie to take him and his car home to Sydney. I was only there for a look but ended up spending several hours on his car...but considering the awful day he had i could in no way accept an offer of cash from him. I would have accepted a few SAU's though.

Edited October 19, 2008 by DiRTgarage

[Yo-Yo]

My Parents got their start in the late 80's - 90's recession, buying their first home after immigrating and renting for 2 years prior

Might be a sign for me to do something similar given the current climate?

Hey Terry, how much would SAU be worth in Yen? Always wanted to visit Japan

Edited October 20, 2008 by Yo-Yo

[(B1) MR_fanny]

so is it a trade of service is it? like you do something for someone service wise say a tune for the value of $4SAU ($400AU) and you can use your SAU dollars to get $400 worth off them if they were say an auto elec? Interesting idea. If only I had a valuable service to offer...lol

So do we need a fed reserve to get this currency out? I've been watching too much Zeitgeist..lol

[Howie]

That's a great idea.. we've got a huge talent pool here at SAU.

[Munkyb0y]

will the $SAU appreciate in value? ie. $5-SAU earnt in 2008 might be worth $7-SAU in 2010.

if so, can we buy shares?

good idea btw. bartering works well. and i'm sure members barter all the time, with parts etc. but this provides a credit system, whereby you can accumulate SAU wealth. (may or may not lead to corruption)

[GTR-N1]

To answer the above posts...

SAU would need to make this idea "Official". It's their baby!

I'd envisage that 1 "SAU" = AU$100 = 1 Hour's work. It is not interchangeable with YEN except thru AU$

Over time, the value would not change under any circumstances. Otherwise this will become an Admin. nightmare!

Yes, an "SAU" (or pronounced "sow") credit is an exchangeable service between members.

To register 1X "SAU" credit onto the forum, the recipient + 1 witness would need to ratify that say 1 Hour's work was done -

or that say, a $100 part was supplied

Bartering in 'hard times' can help several ways...

i) prevent an SAUer from losing his/her car

ii) keep people's heads above water in many other ways financially

iii) help make more friends

iv) push your Trader Rating upwards

v) SAU Membership goes up - not down!

I'm just a chemist, counsellor & hypnotherapist; so during the last recession, I swapped my hypnotherapy skills sometimes to help people to stop smoking. They made money out of that alone - not to mention their health!

Tez

P.S. Do NOT put yourself down! We all have talents here!

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

just offer your body

[Johnny]

I think its a great idea; having a database of goods and services which could be sorted by location closest to you.

could also include 'stock' parts required to pass EPA RWC.

1 sau = $100 is prob a bit too much; mayb 100sau's for $100

[Crans]

Will this lead to SAU prostitution?

[some_cs_student]

An interesting idea, but I wouldn't make 1SAU = $100, more like 1SAU = $50 or less, it can't be worth more in parts than a mechanic would have charged...

Also, I strongly doubt Australia will hit a recession, I'm not seeing our banks folding, or massive rescue packages promised by our government, so I have to think Australia as an economy will be relatively safe, but not immune to what the rest of the world is doing.

So I think your panicking for no reason personally

[FATGTS-R]

At work we are members of bartercard. Its only going to work if its dollar for dollar i.e SAU$1 = AU$1.

The main problem with bartering is people loading the price and making the currency worthless. It happens especially with electrical items. i.e the bartercard auction site where an ipod will sell for $1,000 and a crappy LCD tv for $5,000.

In the sau example it would be loaded for premium services like engine tuning as opposed to a spark plug change. Someone would be happy to pay SAU$300 an hour for tuning instead of using cash.

How would you get it started though? As in the very first transaction ever, where did the customer get there SAU$ from?

In other barter systems its organised by a compnay i.e bartercard and you are given x amount of barter dollars when you join after having paid a fee in cash. They keep a small fee from every transaction in cash.

[funkymonkey]

the bartercard system failed and died a miserable death, even after many attempts of revival... I'm not so sure another similar system is gonna be worthwhile.

Besides, who's gonna police it? We have enough trouble keeping on top of a For Sale section. We really don't need the extra hassle of "i have all this SAU points but I can't use it for anything that I want".

With point 6 of the first post, what's to stop a seller glossing over the guy with first dibs in favour of someone who's gonna pay him cold hard cash? It is a recession-based theory after all.

I'm keen to see a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kinda system, but there's always some idiot who rorts the system and makes it unfair for everyone, and obviously someone will end up getting the shaft (eg someone spending 4 hours detailing your car earning the same points as someone installing a stereo in your car for an hour... but the audio installer can get away with charging so much cos there's no one else who can do it... just as a hypthetical)

besides... SAU's not losing members over a recession... well not a noticeable amount anyways.... plus its not a recession (yet)

[GTR-N1]

Any system takes PLANNING like a 'good boy Scout'! Even if it doesn't have to be implemented!

Any person wanting to rort a system is not a 'good' SAUer.

Talking about 'Scout'...

Does anyone remember a classic film called "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD"??????????????????????????????

Scout is the daughter of Atticus Finch the lawyer in America's 1930s who is dedicated to do right for his fellow man -

...even if that man can't pay him back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember how at the beginning, Scout is bewildered at why an old man (like me) comes across to Atticus and gives him some vegetables and then shuffles away? Atticus explains to Scout how that old man couldn't afford to pay for his legal fees -

so he paid with vegetables instead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS BARTERING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember Post #2 by DiRTgarage ???????????????

He did something for a fellow SAUer without payment through the goodness of his heart.

WHERE DOES YOUR HEART LIE ??????????????????????????????????????????????

[aRiella34]

Barter system or no barter system...... in my opinion we will go into a recession..........it might be short lived, but I think its inevitable..unfortunately!!

[(B1) MR_fanny]

just offer your body

HA.

loading the dollar would be a problem....i guess thats why terry suggests the $SAU will be based on hour/time spent on the work in stead of how much the service was worth. am i correct terry?

Theres always gonna be some tool who will abuse the system. Unless its some secretive stone cutters guild thing where we all meet up secretly and plan the domination of the world and you can only get in from someone who knows someone and they have to go through an initiatioin like homer did.

[funkymonkey]

WHERE DOES YOUR HEART LIE ??????????????????????????????????????????????

Right now somewhere between my mortgage and my bank balance.

[bombtrack]

I have never seen Terry so worked up before!

I think it's a good idea that would probably take some kind hearted individuals like DirtGARAGE to instill the attitude in others. A hard task, no doubt.

To chime into the economic debate I strongly believe that we will experience, at the very least, a further and considerable economic slow down... we are certainly not immune to recession and as has been demonstrated in the past couple of weeks, the government have very little clue about what is actually going on, and are recycling US rhetoric to allay peoples fears.

Right now somewhere between my mortgage and my bank balance.

Word.

[PM-R33]

Will this lead to SAU prostitution?

Yes it will, along the lines of:

"Will offer head if you make my car go pshhh-tu-tu-tuuuu-tuuuu....." as every second post in the Forced Induction forum. lol.