If a person does take off without putting back into the system, which seldom occurs, the whole system is able to absorb the loss. In the B.C. LETS, some shops sell locally-produced goods in greendollars and imported goods in ordinary dollars. The local dentist gives treatments to LETS members for half regular money and half green money. Rather than seeking to replace the ordinary economy, Local Employment Trading Systems are complimentary to it. They are essentially useful in difficult economic times.
Green money can keep flowing when conventional money dries up.
When communities become increasingly self-reliant, they are not as subject to the upheavals of the global marketplace. There is comfort in a time when even national economies, let alone our individual economic prospects, are caught up in forces seemingly beyond our understanding, let alone control.