Ithaca Dollars Still Being Spent
I ran across this new video about Ithica dollars on YouTube. It’s a very cool idea, and looks like the implementation is going well. Comments?
I ran across this new video about Ithica dollars on YouTube. It’s a very cool idea, and looks like the implementation is going well. Comments?
The video mentioned both that the currency is tied to an hour of labor AND that it’s worth about $10 cash. I wonder how they deal with the fact that many people sell they time at more than $10/hour. If I build a website for $100/hour, does that mean I can charge 10 Ithaca hours/hour? Also, I wonder how the currency supply is controlled? With the barter exchanges I’m familiar with, the money supply grows through debt, exchange purchases, and exchange give-aways. I wonder if it works the same with with Ithaca hours?
excerpt from lifedollars.org site:
Life Dollars (Life Currency)
A Life Dollar is valued at one hour of time. Time is a universal currency; an hour of time is the same length for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live. Unlike time banks, however, we do not impose an ‘hour for an hour’ equivalence on exchanges. We recognize that differences in value do exist, and that the ‘hidden’ hours someone spends in order to offer one hour of service must be taken into account for a trade to be fair and for an economic system to function universally.
In thinking about exchanging time, we ask questions like: How much of someone else’s life energy am I asking for in exchange for what I have to offer? How much of my own time and energy has gone into being able to provide this service or this item? What is a fair exchange of life energy for what I want to buy or sell?
In this way, we move beyond the usual concepts of how much ‘money’ something is worth to a more just and equitable assessment of value. We eliminate artificially-created inequalities between the currencies of different nations, and normalize economic transactions between communities. Thus we are creating a world of economic justice and sustainable prosperity for all.
Life Dollars are non-interest bearing, sustainable, and completely stable. They are not linked to any bank issued national currency and are not subject to inflation or deflation. They are an unlimited supply currency, electronic, cheque and printed, issued by citizens themselves in sufficiency as and when they need them. The trading environment created by the use of Life Dollars is cooperative rather than competitive, and people often remark upon how different it feels. Based on our experience, the overwhelming majority of people do choose to behave cooperatively and act responsibly towards other members and the environment, when they are given a healthy monetary system in which to trade.
A Cooperative Economy
The Life Currency Cooperative Economy connects people with each other. It facilitates mutually beneficial exchanges, helps to rebuild and strengthen communities, and fosters a culture of goodwill and trust. By removing artificial incentives toward competition, building in accountability, and rewarding expressions of goodwill and socially responsible action, Life Dollars enable our members to remove their support from the dysfunctional financial structures which keep so many destructive practices in our world in place.
Members of Fourth Corner Exchange (a local chapter of The Life Currency Cooperative Exchange), the Pacific Northwest organization where Life Dollars were originally developed, began trading in January 2004. Since then we have grown and now have many hundreds of members who have conducted thousands of exchanges, trading a vast variety of goods and services. We are spreading to other communities and other parts of the world.