Welcome to Barter


== Introduction
  
    When an economy goes south, or a government becomes destructive to 
  it's own people, then alternatives need to be made. People need to be free 
  to live while the world around them is going crazy.
    
    Often a person, population, or nation is rich in everything but 
  currency. In cases like that, bartering becomes the rule of trade. Those 
  that lose out usually don't understand bartering; how it works, how to 
  value things, or how to even find people to trade with. That's why I am 
  developing Barter.
  
  Barter is being developed to:
    1.  Help local communities who are suffering in this economy by
      providing an infrastructure that allows them to trade goods and
      services for other goods and services;
    2.  Help individuals leverage an alternative route for taking care of 
      their welfare and the welfare of their friends and family;
    3.  Replace "Legal Tender" as the preferred means of gaining any 
      service or good, and of income;
    4.  Build strong networks of people who have certain resources in 
      trade for certain needs;
    5.  Build a strong network of friends;
    6.  Build a strong reputation for yourself, your goods, and your
      services.
      
      
== Platform

    I chose to use Ruby on Rails because I love Ruby. Ruby is simplistic, 
  beautiful, and free. If you could codify freedom in to a programming
  language this would be damn near as close as I could perceive it 
  appearing.

    Sure you understand why I went with Ruby, unless you favor Python, 
  erlang, et cetera, but you may wonder why I went with Ruby on Rails 
  instead of Merb of some such thing. I believe in the opinion of Ruby on 
  Rails. If you understand that statement you will know that Merb is not an 
  option for me, and you will know what kind of programmer I am.
      

== Participation

    If I some how miraculously sold you on developing for this project, or 
  installing it somewhere for your own use, then you will need to get a hold 
  of me. I currently have this under a private/pub key. It is my way of 
  keeping the project public while limiting access to the code base.
    
    So if you wish to participate contact me:
    
    e. michael@theurbanrebellion.com
    c. 231-884-3024
    
    Give me a brief summary of whom you are and what you intend to do with 
  this, and I will more than likely give you the private key needed.


== History

  "In Congress, July 4, 1776

  The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

    When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
  people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
  another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
  equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle 
  them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they 
  should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
  equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable  
  Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 
  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, 
  deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That 
  whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
  the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new 
  Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its 
  powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their 
  Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long 
  established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and 
  accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to 
  suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
  the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
  and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to 
  reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, 
  to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future 
  security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and 
  such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former 
  Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain 
  is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 
  object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To 
  prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

    He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary 
  for the public good.

    He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing 
  importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be 
  obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
  them.

    He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large 
  districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of 
  Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and 
  formidable to tyrants only.

    He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, 
  uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, 
  for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

    He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with 
  manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

    He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause 
  others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of 
  Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the 
  State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion 
  from without, and convulsions within.

    He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that 
  purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to 
  pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the 
  conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

    He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his 
  Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

    He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of 
  their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

    He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of 
  Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

    He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the 
  Consent of our legislatures.

    He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to 
  the Civil Power.

    He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
  our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to 
  their Acts of pretended Legislation:

    For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

    For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders 
    which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

    For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

    For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

    For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

    For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

    For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighbouring 
    Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging 
    its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit 
    instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

    For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and 
    altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

    For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested 
    with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

    He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his 
  Protection and waging War against us.

    He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and 
  destroyed the lives of our people.

    He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
  compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with 
  circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most 
  barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

    He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas 
  to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their 
  friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

    He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 
  to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian 
  Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of 
  all ages, sexes and conditions.

    In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in 
  the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by 
  repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act 
  which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

    Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We 
  have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to 
  extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the 
  circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to 
  their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the 
  ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would 
  inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have 
  been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, 
  therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and 
  hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace 
  Friends.

    We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in 
  General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
  for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of 
  the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That 
  these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent 
  States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, 
  and that all political connection between them and the State of Great 
  Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and 
  Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, 
  contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and 
  Things which Independent States may of right do.

    And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the 
  protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
  Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."