What you describe in Seattle is a Theft Economy at the retail level, which is the result of the Theft done at the wholesale level by the banks and the corporations that sell the goods in the stores.  Neither works because everybody on both sides is trying to take as much for themselves as they can get away with.  Gift economies work by giving people as much as they need.  Since you Googled demurrage, you can now Google potlach.

Where do banks get the money to loan people?  They borrow it.  So the carrying cost makes lending money a bad business.  Thus the reason no current goobermint would issue such money, goobermints are set up so banks can make money by lending it out.

It's a pay as you go economy, the money has to keep moving around it can't sit around too long or it becomes worthless.  Inflation does this also, but in inflation banks just keep borrowing money and adjust their interest rates to cover the projected inflation.  As long as they can borrow at a lower rate than they charge to loan it out + inflation, they make money on the spread.

You want a pile of money you can keep in the bank and earn interest on to pay you an annuity.  This is what you can't have.  Because the reality is that the stuff the money is supposed to buy is disappearing.  To be a true proxy for the available resources, the money has to disappeaar right along with them.  You can't get something for nothing.

RE