Editing Local exchange trading system (section)

== Benefits ==
LETS can help [[community building|revitalise and build community]] by allowing a wider cross-section of the [[community]]—individuals, small businesses, local services and [[Non-profit organization|voluntary group]]s—to save money and resources in cooperation with others and extend their purchasing power. Other benefits may include social contact, health care, tuition and training, support for local enterprise and new businesses. One goal of this approach is to stimulate the economies of economically depressed towns that have goods and services, but little official currency: the LETS scheme does not require outside sources of income as stimulus.
The environmental benefits of enhanced locals' self-reliance involve less-distance transport (as local goods are substituted for imports) and more evident environmental effects. Moreover, diverse local economies support sustainability by decreasing the need to use assets in an inefficient manner to satisfy external consumer demands. That also requires improving the local [[quality of life]] without having to make expenditures.  LETS can allow for much greater self-direction and flexibility in employment patterns than the mainstream, conventional economy and, in particular, enable the skills of the unemployed to be valued and used.<ref name="Local Exchange Trading Systems and">{{cite journal |last1=Seyfang |first1=Gill J. |title=Local Exchange Trading Systems and Sustainable Development |journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development |date=1 March 1996 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=5–45 |doi=10.1080/00139157.1996.9933457 |bibcode=1996ESPSD..38b...5S |issn=0013-9157}}</ref>