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As part of their Get2Gether Challenge, the Center [for a New American Dream] put together this video on how to start a time bank. Essentially a neighborhood exchange program that allows people to connect and trade their skills, time banks work by providing a system through which neighbors perform tasks or services for each other—anything from DIY to accounting to gardening skills—and earn "hours" in the time bank (everyone's time is valued equally), which they can then trade with other neighbors for other skills.
Not only does it get neighbors talking and trading together, and therefore create tighter social bonds, but it also keeps people trading skills, goods and resources locally. Why pay for an organic tomato from California when you can have your neighbor teach you how to grow your own? The other plus side of time banks is that they can help low income people, or folks who may not be able to work full time, by providing a way to supplement their income and get out in society on their own terms, without the need for start-up capital or formal business knowhow.
Science Fiction writers often explore alternative economies. Kim Stanley Robinson did a lot in his Mars Trilogy. Would you participate in a Time Bank? The ability to tell people, "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" could make you the king of the neighborhood Time Bank.
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Informative) by Qzukk on Saturday June 27 2015, @01:37PM
Not going to let anyone plant an ob on me [abelard.org].
(Score: 1) by gznork26 on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:46PM
Thanks for that link to "And Then There Were None". More people should read it.
Back in 2008, I used a series of short stories to explore the possibility of local government supporting this by paying people who do work for the city and the community in currency that can be exchanged for an hour of someone else's time. That extends the reach of the idea to people who want to participate but don't have a skill that's in need at the moment. Here's link to the part that introduces the new currency:
http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/short-story-la-scrip/ [wordpress.com]
Further on in the series, I explored a way to keep people from hoarding the scrip by printing it with inks that faded on a schedule.
Khipu were Turing complete.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday June 27 2015, @08:03PM
How does it help someone who's skills aren't in need? If you're skills are in need, are you going to trade your skilled time one for one with that of a bonsai trimmer?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Sunday June 28 2015, @09:59AM
Anyone who might be tempted to read the link: it's a short story version of Atlas Shrugged without the Ubermensch parts. It's a good example how even the most ridiculous of ideas can seem superficially plausible in the context of a fictional story where the author controls the setting, the characters, and all events and action.
If you're aware of Ayn Rand or the general theory of Libertarianism, you probably won't find anything new in the story. If you're not, you might be interested, though I encourage engaging in some serious critical thinking afterwards so that you don't allow yourself to be brainwashed.