In rural communities there has always been a currency that means as much as money. Call it barter, or volunteerism, or neighboring. People take up house building, music, nursing, cooking, preaching, hunting, or other skills they can use in trade. The trades bring tangible benefits, like when neighbors help put a new roof on the barn or play music for a wedding. In a community of close neighbors, you all know what the others need.
Able people help care for disabled people.
Wise people counsel foolish people. You celebrate holidays, you develop a regional sense of food, crafts, music, dance, art. At an economic level, neighborhood life pays off in transportation dollars saved because our needs are met nearby. When we were kids in the 1950s and 1960s, farm families raised food and wood to heat the house and build fence. Among neighbors a lot of food swapping went on.