A Currency of Time
The Echo Park Time Bank, nestled deep in East Los Angeles, has proposed an alternative means of how we as society exchange goods, services, and ideas. Rather than use a superfluous money system based on the worth of economies, the Time Bank seeks to value the worth of individuals.
For every hour an individual spends helping another individual out, they get one Time Dollar. This Time Dollar can then be used in exchange for the services of others, making Time Dollars a more indicative concept of how much labor is really worth.
There are 65 Time Banks in the U.S., and over 300 throughout the world. To see if there's a time bank in your area, or to just glean more info, check out The Echo Park Time Bank's website.
Story suggested by Lewis Kofsky.
Image: "Local Street Market" by JeeJe on Flickr, courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.
- 3-26-09
- Jared Rinaldi's blog
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Great concept
I like the idea of Time Dollars. Maybe I should start a time bank here. If only I had more time... *strokes beard*
There is one sticking point, though. Some one-hour chunks of time seem to be worth more than others though. A hour donated by a reluctant, unhelpful person is certainly of less value overall than a genuinely altruistic hour.
I was actually just thinking about exactly that conundrum: the value of time varies wildly. Here are my thoughts, I think you'd find it relevant to the Time Dollar idea: my quick 2 cents
Cool post!
TIME BANKS
Excellent!
I'm very glad to hear about this. I hope the Echo Park Time Bank proves to be a long-term success, and that the practice will spread. DavidCain's point is valid, that time in some services is likely to be valued differently than other services, and I'd be interested in learning whether this has been adequately resolved in practice. I certainly hope so. Rooting this institution in the local community seems essential, as trust is surely needed to operate such a time bank. I'd like to see one near me. There's nothing like walking the talk to show it can be done.