Fourth Corner Exchange Inc is a sustainable community currency based in the Pacific Northwest USA. Founded in 2002 by Francis Ayley and a group of like minded friends, Fourth Corner Exchange started trading in January 2004, utilizing a basic Time Dollar system that has some features of LETS, but with important differences from both which are described on their website. There are presently over five-hundred and fifty members in Bellingham, Washington, Port Townsend, Washington, Everett, Washington, Mount Vernon, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Prospective members must attend a new members meeting in order to join and trade with other members. Meetings are held in Bellingham, Port Townsend, Mount Vernon, Everett, Portland and many other locations.
Recently, Fourth Corner Exchange has spread to other parts of the USA, notably Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado and Ohio.
The original software used to run Fourth Corner's website has been released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is distributed through SourceForge. The Fourth Corner Exchange database program has been significantly modified since this open source release.
Famous quotes containing the words fourth, corner and/or exchange:
“For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you.”
—Bible: Hebrew Deuteronomy, 6:15.
The words are also found in Exodus 20:5, referring to the second commandment: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image ... for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
“A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he’ll give him sixpence. But the second time it’ll only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he’ll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
“If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator—the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)