Green American
Page: http://www.GreenAmericaToday.org/pubs/greenamerican/articles/Spring2009/timedollars.cfm
Spring 2009
Local
Currencies to Build Resiliency:
Time Dollars
What if time really were money? At the Time Bank Store in Dane County, WI, it is. The store is the first of its kind in Wisconsin, and the unusual thing about it is that your US currency is completely useless inside.
The Time Bank Store is a project of the Dane County Time Bank—based in
Madison, WI, and surrounding communities—which aims to connect community
members so they can provide services for each other. It’s kind of like
old-fashioned bartering, except through a highly organized exchange
system that eliminates the quid pro quo aspect. In other words, you
don’t always get a service from the person you serve.
Through the Dane County Time Bank—part of a network of Time Banks across
the country tracked and supported by TimeBanks USA—every hour an
individual or organization volunteers to help another member of the bank
earns a “Time Dollar,” which she or he can then spend on receiving an
hour of service from anyone else in the network. Volunteer services can
range from giving someone a ride to the doctor or on errands; helping
with home repair, child care, or cleaning; home visits for the elderly;
or even activities such as going out dancing or playing games with
someone who needs a partner.
"I view the Time Bank as a social safety net that we can provide as a
community, because our government is not adequately providing that kind
of net for people,” says Stephanie Rearick, director of the Dane County
Time Bank. “We see this as a way we can step in and do things for each
other.”
The Dane County Time Bank steering committee made a commitment right
from the start to involve members from a broad cross-section of the
community. The result? “It has just exploded,” says Rearick. “We have
900 members in all different parts of the county and all the different
neighborhoods throughout town. It’s huge.”
Time Dollar transactions at the Dane County Time Bank were conducted
solely online and by phone when it launched in October of 2005. However,
the project has grown so successfully that they opened the Time Bank
Store in November of 2008, a brick-and-mortar location where people
could bank and spend Time Dollars. In addition, the Time Bank Store
doubles as a thrift shop where people can donate and purchase goods
ranging from toiletries to furniture.
Fostering Resilient Communities
Especially in tougher economic times, models like Time Banking can be a
creative way of cutting back on spending while still getting goods and
services one needs. By working outside of a mainstream economic
framework, community networks create ways of sharing and providing
services that don’t rely on the exchange of currency. And while
currencies and markets fluctuate, strong community ties are a constant.
In fact, a report recently released by The New Economics Foundation in
Britain proposed Time Banking as a “recession-proof means of exchange,”
given the cracking of mainstream global economic structures.
Particularly in the current economic climate, Rearick says that systems
like Time Dollars can also be empowering because they encourage
individuals and communities to support one another when governments fall
short.
As first conceived in 1980 by economist Edgar Cahn—1998 winner of Green
America’s Building Economic Alternatives Award— the philosophy behind
“Time Dollars” is based on the ideal that we can best build community
when everyone’s contributions are valued equally. Where our current
economic structures do not attribute the same value to everyone’s
labor—for instance, unpaid work within the home such as housework,
raising children, or elder care does not hold any monetary value within
mainstream economic models—the Time Dollar system is based on equality
and reciprocity for labor. One hour equals one service credit in the
system no matter what the service, and thus encourage reciprocal
community service.
Where monetary transactions are characterized by fleeting exchanges,
time banking fosters community building at the most basic level because
it encourages interaction.
“In the beginning, I was more interested in the economic impact it could
have,” says Rearick. “But now that I am immersed in it, I think it is a
wonderfully powerful community-building tool. ... This is the first
thing I’ve seen that really reaches across demographic boundaries and
helps build relationships and trust in a community across income, race,
class, and neighborhoods.”
—Natasha Abbas
For more information on starting or finding a Time Bank near you, visit www.timebanks.org.
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