Voluntarily Trading Time

At what amount do you value an hour of your time?  Is it ten dollars, thirty dollars, one-hundred dollars per hour, more?  The value you assign to an hour’s worth of your time may vary, depending upon what your time is spent on.

In the currrent economic climate, the value of your hour’s worth of time may be depressed, or possibly not readily and voluntarily tradable, thus underground economies and rather unusual barter markets.

Here’s an interesting way to barter your time, in one hour trades, Time Banks.  Time Banks describe their purpose, beyond voluntarily trading time, as a social change movement.  Here is how Time Bank is supposed to work.

At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.

Each Time Bank has a website where you list what you would like to do for other members. You look up Time Bank services online or call a community coordinator to do it for you. You earn Time Dollars after each service you perform and then you get to spend it on whatever you want from the listings.

With Time Banking, you will be working with a small group of committed individuals who are joined together for a common good. It connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. To see what happens each week when you are part of Time Bank is deeply fulfilling, especially if you are helping to make it run.

I have not fully reviewed all the information (there is alot) at the Time Bank website, which is linked above, but the idea has implications which could be far reaching.  Well, at least until the IRS decides to tap these voluntary trades, as Karen De Coster notes.

UPDATE: Oops, I neglected to link to the original story.  Time & teamwork

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/29 at 11:28 AM

  1. In a Barter Network, scarce items have more value than widely abundant items. This is the market of supply and demand. With a Time Bank, the abundance of an item does not make it less valuable. The scarce items are not valued higher….everyone’s time is equally valued and donated to the system.

    Edgar Cahn Creator of TimeBanking Quote:
    Time banks as a community currency was designed to take express exception to the definition of value that market price sets. Price in the market is set by supply and demand, so as a thing is more scarce it’s more valuable relative to demand and if it’s abundant it’s cheap and I realized that what that meant was that every fundamental capacity that defines us as human beings and enabled our species to survive and evolve was worthless in that pricing system. If we were going to start to value the kinds of things that human being need to do for each other, to build community, to raise children, to make democracy work, to fight for social justice we were going to have to find a way of honoring with value the work that was essential to promoting fundamental values.

    A LETS system, Local Exchange Trading, is similar to TimeBanking but in LETS you may charge 2-3 or more hours (units) for a certain item. Trading and value is based on the market. LETS is taxed as a barter system.  Do you see the difference and the reason for distinguishing a TimeBank as a donation and non-taxed?

    Mark

    Posted by Mark Herpel  on  05/02  at  02:53 PM

  2. Do you see the difference and the reason for distinguishing a TimeBank as a donation and non-taxed?

    Mark, indeed, I do, and am, well aware of the difference.

    My interest in posting on this was not tax related, though Karen De Coster’s question as to whether TimeBank’s current non-taxable status will remain intact has distinct merit.

    As tax revenues, forcibly obtained, are pressured in this economic climate, and decline further, without subsequent cuts in redistributive policies, no potential source of tax income for the State will remain sacrosant.

    Posted by John Venlet  on  05/02  at  03:35 PM

  3. I agree they are going to have to raise money from somewhere, the massive printing can’t go on forever. Thank you for your response.
    Mark

    Posted by Mark Herpel  on  05/02  at  03:44 PM

  4. Mark,

    Your welcome.

    Thank you for taking the time to read the post, and comment.

    Posted by John Venlet  on  05/02  at  05:48 PM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: Has Adam Smith Been Misinterpreted?

Previous entry: Sheep or Goats, It Doesn't Matter, They're Both F*cked

<< Back to main