Samantha Torrence - As a child you are told “If you can’t pay for your meal at the restaurant they will make you wash dishes!” The warning is meant to signify a degrading punishment for skipping out on a bill. The Time/Bank restaurant, however, puts this practice in a whole new light. There you pay for your meal by offering 30 minutes of your time, and maybe that means just washing dishes. Through the idea of exchanging a person’s time and services, Time/Bank has helped people truly understand that their time is their most valuable resource.As a system of survival Time/Banks may not be the most sufficient, but as a way to improve your community using your time and skills it is inspiring. The Time/Banks set up around the world have had a great impact on local communities, but especially on the artistic community. In the world of art success is fleeting, but the passionate commit to their work and may suffer for it. With Time/Bank a starving artist may not have to literally starve.
Eflux.com has set up a Time/Bank with 4 branches in Australia, New York, Germany, and Holland. Local artists can make an account with the Time/Bank and begin posting services and volunteering to help someone else. The ‘job postings’ list what service is needed or available and many times what the person can offer in return from their own skills and time. Giving time to one another does not always have to be in trade with that person. The Time/Bank sets up the account as a community pool so you can earn time and share time with others in need of more time for a bigger project.
The Time/Bank principle is very basic and easy to understand. It is currency that shows how many minutes or hours of your work you have given to the community, or it is a direct exchange of hour for hour with another person. People who amass great amounts of hours can only spend them at accepting local businesses. The currency itself does not have pull or sway over others as it does not represent wealth but the value of time. In this way people are encouraged to work and help one another without thought of unnecessary gain. Time/Banks take greed out of the equation and introduce cooperation and good will.
Innovations like Time/Bank are extremely helpful at a local level. In America where the economy has come to near collapse because of greed and the unequal value of time and skill in the monetary system a Time/Bank may help a local community thrive in spite of state or federal problems. Time/Bank helps local farms and mom and pop grocery stores that accept the currency the ability to compete and make a stable life in a small town. As the movement of Time/Banking grows it may have a stabilizing effect on currency with not as many American ‘notes’ being used in local markets it can be saved for federal and state commerce and increase the value of the dollar in the international community.
Time/Banking can also encourage local farmers to focus on the immediate community and for people to focus on locally grown foods which will increase the popularity of the Farmer’s Market movement. Food, goods, and livestock give people the chance to be self-sustaining, a lauded conservative principle and the goal of many grass roots movements in America. Time being the coveted good and service makes all people on equal footing with one another so people do not feel undervalued in society without the use of social weapons that cause resentment towards one another. This equal footing is really equal opportunity towards a happiness that can only be sustained in a place where social capital and time capital are valued above greed.