Liberia Stories (Hypothetical Micro-economy)

Alpha-A gas station worker.
Beta-A food store owner and operator.
Gamma-A barber shop owner and operator.
Delta-A communication link owner and operator.
Epsilon-A clothing peddler.
Zeta-A taxi driver.
Eta-A taxi driver.
Theta-A motorcycle taxi rider.
Iota-A motorcycle taxi rider.
Kappa-A general store worker.

Now, let's look at the typical interactions that these people could have in a regular day, and how each interaction fuels further interactions.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Kappa all need to get to work. So Zeta, Eta, Theta, and Iota take them to work. Zeta, Eta, Theta, and Iota would purchase their "petrol" from Alpha, with the money from Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Kappa.  Zeta, Eta, Theta, and Iota would then go spend their money on phone minutes, food, clothes. Alpha will spend his money on the same things. Can you see where this is going? Epsilon, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Kappa will spend their money on similar things. As we can see from this, a person can conduct most of the economic activity in a very small, personal group of people.

At this point, assuming that you were able to get the idea, you are now wondering why the heck I went on about that. The point of this whole excercise is to paint the picture of a highly personal economy. And this intimate economy fosters some real community, beautiful community.